Going the Distance

For over four decades, Governor’s Girls JV Hockey team has kept their sticks on the ice.
 

Ingrid Allen ’26 has known how to ice skate her whole life, but never played hockey until she came to The Governor’s Academy. After hearing about the school’s junior varsity hockey program—affectionately known as JV Puck—she decided to go out for the team. “I wanted to try new things freshman year, and I heard from all of the upperclassmen that it was the best team at Govs,” Allen says. “I grew up watching my older brother play hockey, so I thought it would be fun.”

The Girls JV Hockey team formed in 1985, just a few years after the creation of the Girls Varsity Hockey program, and the same year current coach Michael Karin P’08,‘09,’12 joined the school faculty. “When the girls saw their classmates playing, they said, gee, I want to play this sport as well,” Karin says. “There was enough interest to form a second team.” Karin teaches math and computer science, and has also coached girls and boys soccer. He is now in his 28th season as head coach of JV Puck.

Under Karin’s leadership, the JV program strives to be inclusive. “We have an instructional hockey program for those who are really new at the sport,” Karin says. “But, for the most part, anyone who tries out will be on the team. We’ve had as many as 30 girls. As long as they can somewhat skate, we’ll take them.” Karin believes so many students come out for the team because they hear from existing players how much fun the team has while learning and growing together. “We really try to balance fun and learning the game,” Karin says. “Those aren’t mutually exclusive things.”

Karin is assisted by Tracy Stickney P’23,’26,’28, who first came to Govs to coach field hockey. She worked under Babe Ceglarski P’02,’04,’11 as an assistant for varsity hockey for a few years, and after taking time off the ice when her children were young, made the move to JV Puck. Together, Karin and Stickney make sure to integrate enjoyable drills into the work of learning the rules of the game, how to skate, how to handle and shoot the puck, and positional play. The girls appreciate Stickney’s locker room speeches and the lucky pink pants she wears to every game.

“I think girls in particular need to know that someone believes in them and supports them and will help them through learning something new and hard like skating,” Stickney says. “When they start to get the hang of it, they start to believe in themselves.” Many players stay on the team for all four years. “They really take pleasure in learning how to finally stop, or to do a backward crossover, or lift the puck,” Karin says. “Those benchmarks mean a lot to them, and then it translates into the game.”

Caitlin Toomey ’10 took sports seriously in her time at Govs, but treated the winter season as a chance to have fun, while also working to improve her hockey skills. “My first JV Puck practice freshman year, I could barely skate across the ice, but I finished senior year on the first line,” she says. “I got to play with girls who were not on my other sports teams or in my dorms, so it was special creating a new group of friends."

While most of the team’s players start as underclassmen, others start as juniors, and this season, two seniors came out for their first year of hockey—something very atypical for JV sports. “Unfortunately, the trend in junior varsity sports, at all schools, is that if students don’t make varsity, they don’t play JV,” Karin says. “A lot of students are also concentrating on one sport—the multi-sport athlete is dwindling. I’m glad this team has really bucked that trend, and that girls are playing JV hockey because they see it as fun and new.”

Four-year player Reese Fox ’26 appreciates how unique it is for a team to have members from every single grade. “As a senior, I was able to spend so much time with freshmen, which I would not have been able to otherwise,” she says. “When I was a freshman, the upperclassmen were so helpful when it came to teaching me how to put on my gear and learning new things on the ice. Having the opportunity to help the freshmen this year as a senior was an incredible full-circle moment.” Allen agrees that the upperclassmen help foster team camaraderie. “As a senior on the team, I love building the confidence of the other girls,” she says. “We play music and sing and dance…Everyone leaves practice with a smile on their face because the energy on our team is unmatched.”

Even as skills improve, players are reluctant to leave JV. “A few of us girls had stickers in our lockers that said JVHockey4life, so there was no chance I was going to leave the team,” Toomey says. “We formed such a special bond where it truly didn’t matter your skill level or the score of the game. We just wanted to have fun together.”

Stickney believes the girls help push each other out of their comfort zones while still having fun. “The more experienced players remember their first days on the ice and help the newbies so much,” she says. “I am always amazed by the strides that have been made by the time semester break rolls around.”

The JV team practices four days a week and typically plays 15-18 games a season. “The school is terrific about giving us almost equal time as the varsity programs,” Karin says. Sometimes that means practicing at 8:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, but our players still come, and they still want to be part of it.” Allen says that Coach Karin is a huge factor in the team’s level of dedication. “He cares so much about the team and always pushes us to reach our highest potential,” Allen says. “I will forever be grateful for that.”

This year’s team includes four seniors. “It really impresses me when seniors who have a choice of doing something with less of a time commitment still continue to play for me,” Karin says. “One year, I had ten seniors playing. That speaks volumes to me. I take a lot of pride in the fact that they want to continue to play.” Fox credits Karin’s evident love for the team for motivating her return. “He is like a father to our JV Puck family,” she says. “We even call him Papa! He pushes and motivates us to do our best, while providing helpful advice on what we can improve.”

In his fourth year of coaching the team, Karin had the idea to recognize that season’s one senior by giving her the jersey she had worn her freshman year. Now, every year, any player who has been with him for four years is given a jersey. “There are now over 80 girls who have received their jerseys over the years,” he says. “That is the thing that really sticks out for me. Not all of them were stars, but when they come back for reunion, they want to talk to me about their memories of JV Girls Hockey. And that, to me, means a lot.”