The first-ever Danvers Youth Hockey Girls Under-10 team has had a spectacular season, with wins galore and moving up two divisions because of how well they’ve played.
Zoie Abell, Danyka Babiarz, Maeve Crowley, Izzy DePamphilis, Abigail DiRusso, Hailey DiRusso, Addison Garland, Kiley Holmes, Danielle Jacques, Ella Medeiros, Jeanine Medeiros, Rose Medeiros, and Morgan White make up the team. All of the players hail from Danvers and are 10 years old or younger. Joe Crowley serves as the head coach, with Bryan Jacques the assistant.
The girls have gone 17-7-2 on the season, starting with 12 consecutive wins over established programs such as Andover, Brookline, Charlestown, Natick and Waltham. They began the campaign as a Division 3 program, but did so well they were bumped up to Division 2, then to Division 1. Only one of their seven losses have come on the ice; the other six were because of forfeits (due to other team commitments by some of the players).
Some of the players have been skating since they were two years old; others picked up the sport recently.
After having defeated the Needham Rockets in the league semifinals (thanks to a late third period goal), Danvers will now face the Parkway Lady Hawks Black (PLHB) for the championship this Sunday at Ryan Arena in Watertown. Danvers split its two regular season meetings with PLHB and are the only squad to defeat them this season.
“I’ve heard a lot coaches say, ‘It’s the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the one on the back.’ These girls made a team, despite many having never played together before, or in some cases never playing in a full-ice game before this season,” said coach Jacques.
“In all my years around the rinks, I’ve never seen a team gel so quickly, play so selflessly, and dominate the opposition through sheer tenacity like our girls do,” he added. “With my view from the bench, I have a front row seat watching them grow as players ... and more importantly as a team. It couldn’t be more fun.”
