New season, new attitude

Women's ice hockey player. Photo courtesy of St. Michael's Athletic Department.

St. Michael's women's ice hockey makes moves on ice

Michelle Chapdelaine | staff writer

Chris Donovan is beginning his ninth season as the coach of the St. Michael’s women’s varsity ice hockey team.  Donovan has been with the women’s program since it became a varsity sport at St. Michael’s.

Knight’s make cool progress

Donovan has seen the varsity program make great strides since it began eight years ago.

“In January 2000, I had 15 skaters on the ice.  I have 27 now,” Donovan says.  “This was the first year that cuts were made at tryouts in October.”

The team is looking to improve its 4-22 overall record from last season, Donovan says.

“You have to set your sights high,” he says of the team’s goal to win half of its games this season.  Donovan also hopes to increase the number of goals scored by 25 percent, and cut down the amount of goals against the Knights by 25 percent, he says.

Bringing her Division I hockey experience to the Purple Knights this year is Kristen Norris, a 2007 graduate of University of Vermont (UVM).  Norris joined the staff as an assistant coach this fall.

Norris, a Michigan native, played four years of hockey at UVM and was captain her senior year.

As the new assistant coach, Norris says she jumped right in at the start of pre-season.

“The assistant coach position is really hands on, kind of a jack-of-all-trades position,” Norris says.

Along with helping Donovan with practice plans and organizing travel, Norris reinvented the strength training and conditioning program and the team has responded well, she says.
          
“The first day I came in, I had never seen them play, and I told them we would go 500 this year. We’re in a good position to do that, they’ve met and exceeded my expectations,” she says.

Norris says she’s excited to see what the team can accomplish this year, and adds that she is enjoying her coaching experience so far.

Women's ice hockey coach Chris Donovan Photo courtesy of St. Michael's Athletic Department.

New season, new attitude

Senior captain Leslie Pomponi says she sees a new attitude in the team this year.

“Our goal is extremely attainable, but it will require a lot of hard work,” the Belmont, Mass. native says. 

Players were receptive to Norris’ new training program and have continued to work hard for the first two weeks of on-ice practice, according to Pomponi.

Pomponi will lead the Purple Knights with the help of four assistant captains in a new leadership model crafted by Coach Donovan this season.

“[Five captains] sounds like a lot, but there are a lot of different personalities on this team; you need a number of personalities in leadership positions to deal with those personalities,” Donovan says.

Jess Tourville, Meghan Sweezey, Alexis Regan, and Brittany O’Brien were chosen to serve as assistants to Pomponi by Donovan because of different strengths they have demonstrated with skills, work ethic, intensity and dedication.

The Purple Knight's first chances in the ECAC East Conference to show what they have accomplished during pre-season will come on Friday, Nov. 16 at Plymouth State University and Saturday, Nov. 17 at Castleton State.

“I think the main goal we have as a team right now is to be the hardest working team in the league,” Junior Ashley Sutton says. “I’m confident our hard work will pay off.”

ESPN radio coverage

The college recently signed a contract with ESPN Radio to stream coverage of 56 St. Michael’s winter athletic events from the ESPN Radio Web site, but women's ice hockey is not included.

This will replace the college’s use of TeamLine, a service that provides live, play-by-play coverage of college sporting events.

Last year several basketball games were covered by the station for free, Sports Information Director Seth Cole says.  The athletic department and program director talked about how they could continue and expand this service, and signed a contract for this year, he says.

The contract with ESPN includes coverage of 27 men’s basketball games, 22 women’s basketball games, and seven men’s ice hockey games this year.

“They (the station) had in mind what (sports) would generate interest,” Cole says.  “There were conflicts with high school games in the area that the station also covers.”

“(This service) is from the athletic department. We will be selling sponsor ads to help recoup some of the costs and we hope that as enthusiasm about the service grows, it will offset the cost even more,” Cole says.

The coverage that ESPN Radio offers is limited, and WWPV has expressed interest in covering St. Michael's games.  Cole says he hopes the radio station will do that this winter.  

“We encourage WWPV to cover women’s ice hockey,” Cole says.

Having WWPV cover sports is not an easy solution, however.

“Our equipment is not satisfactory for frequent broadcasts,” says WWPV station manager Kyle Chadburn in an e-mail response.  “Also, broadcasting games cuts into a large part of our DJs schedule. We don’t like to force DJs out of their time slots.”

If students or student athletes were interested in helping WWPV raise money for better sports broadcasting equipment, the station would be open to the idea and welcome any team that wished to have their games broadcast, Chadburn says.

Streaming coverage of St. Michael’s games will be available through a link on www.wcat1390.com.