The zamboni man circled the arena in Gorham last week, preparing the ice for women’s hockey practice. The team takes the ice daily to tune up for the upcoming season begining Nov. 8 versus Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. From now until the season opener, the objective is to solidify the team and bring newcomers up to speed with the level of play in college.
Captain Katie True aims to use her experience and leadership in pulling this team together for a successful season. True, who also plays softball at USM was voted captain at the end of last season.
“We all voted for her,” said Molly Zigby.
“She is a good leader and anyone on the team can go and talk to her,” said Courtney Rideout.
Coach David Venditti said True comes to play every game and leads her teammates by example. She has strong work ethic.
True is a senior this season and the sole captain. As a defenseman, she has helped to lead her team for the past three seasons, tallying 12 goals and 22 assists so far in her career.
“I’ve always spoken up a lot,” said True of her previous years as a hockey player.
Now as captain she plans to continue with her boisterousness and to try and keep players pumped at practice.
“It is important to use positive reinforcement with players if they are making mistakes,” said True.
The team is starting the season ranked third in the coaches’ poll. This is the same position t they finished in last season.
“I’m not happy about being ranked third,” said True, “but it will give us something to strive for.”
At practice the women worked very hard and Venditti alternated from instructing to drilling. He made the players gather around him and his dry-erase board while teaching, then set the players loose on the ice for puck-work and passing drills. The women are putting plenty of miles on their skates in the preseason.
“We’re looking really good this year. We have a lot of potential and many good players back from last season. . We have two excellent goalies, both the starter and the backup,” said True. “We’ll just have to work on doing what coach expects and on communicating more.”
When asked about the upcoming season before practice, Molly Zigby, known by teammates as Ziggs, said that much of the work to be done right now is to help the freshman players adjust to the college level of play. Since there are far fewer women playing hockey in high school than in college, the competitiveness is much higher.
Of the skill level exhibited by Manhattanville the number one team in the league, Ziggs said, “They are the luckiest team in the league.”