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Coach Tommy Scarpa’s Winchester High girls hockey team opened up the regular season on Dec. 13, with a 7-2 dominating win against Stoneham at Woburn’s O’Brien Rink.
One year ago, the Red & Black ended the season with a 9-10-3 record after splitting their two postseason games. As the 19th seed in Division 1, they upset St. Mary’s of Lynn, the 14th seed, 1-0 in the Round of 32, before Malden Catholic, the third seed, clipped them, 2-1 in the Sweet 16.
Scarpa, now in his third year behind the Winchester bench, has since welcomed back 12 returning players, and they include senior captain Chloe Goldberg, a winger, senior captain Josie Chang, a center, senior captain Junie McCabe, a winger, senior defender Madeline Rabinovich, senior winger Courtney Fisher, senior winger Cate Sheehan, junior defender Madeline Jones, sophomore defender Reese Bottari, sophomore winger Ashley Goodrich, sophomore center Clare McCabe, sophomore winger Grace Monahan, sophomore defender Anna Beaudry and sophomore goalie Riley Pimentel.
A total of 37 players participated in the tryouts the Monday after Thanksgiving, and, according to Scarpa, it literally came down to last week’s scrimmage against the Haverhill co-op on Dec. 10 to determine the final varsity roster.
“We are extremely fortunate to have a solid youth hockey program in this town, and I can’t tell you how blessed we are to be able to also field a JV team,” said Scarpa. “We are the only Middlesex League girls program with a JV team, and so as a result we play a lot of Catholic and private schools.”
Scarpa says that this year’s club has a ton of potential, especially among the current group of freshmen.
“Our game has always been known for speed and wearing out opponents,” he said. “We have always prided ourselves on our ‘never give in’ attitude, and I think most of our losses last year with the exception of a 4-0 loss to Arlington were all by just one goal.”
The veteran coach added that the strength of the team has always been its “skating and relentlessness.” He then went on to say, “we want them to be tough for teams to play against. That’s the No. 1 priority. If you’re going to beat the Winchester High hockey team(s), you’re going to have to earn it, because we don’t make it easy on anyone.”
But Scarpa admits that the team’s inexperience this year might be a weakness.
“Our young players will be thrown into the fire, but we think they can handle it,” he said.
Scoring goals has always been an issue in the past, but Scarpa thinks that some of his freshmen might change that narrative.
The Winchester girls lost a scrimmage to St. Mary’s of Lynn on Dec. 6, 4-2. The veterans only played the first period, while the freshmen and sophomores took over in the final two periods to get some varsity experience.
“We were proud of how they competed, while learning a valuable high school hockey lesson that you can’t take a shift off,” Scarpa said. “St. Mary’s scored two goals in the last minute.”
Scarpa’s crew finished up the scrimmage season against the aforementioned Haverhill / Pentucket / North Andover co-op, and it ended in a 2-2 tie.
The coaching staff was impressed by the way the girls battled throughout the final scrimmage, but they know there is still a lot of work to be done like teaching the newer players the system, not to mention the set plays. However, they are confident that the new kids will quickly pick it up, because they all have good hockey IQs.
Scarpa hopes that his team is the one to beat in the Middlesex League this winter.
“I want teams to look at their calendar, and when they see Winchester, they immediately know that it’s going to be a grudge match, and they have to bring their A-game to beat us,” he said. “We still play in one of the most difficult leagues (in this state) from top to bottom. There are some less skilled teams, but even those teams play hard. I’m proud to be a part of this league. We don’t take anything for granted. We have some of the best coached teams in girls high school hockey here in this league. That’s what makes (winning) so damn hard, yet so much fun at the same time.”
But the coach also knows that his team is trending in the right direction, while concluding, “I’m so fortunate to call this my program, and I don’t take that for granted one bit.”
Joe McConnell is a longtime, award-winning sports editor for numerous North Shore publications. He began covering Winchester sports for the News last November.
