Reporter Courtney Fitzgerald also contributed to this article.
The winter season is upon us, which means the Malden/Medford Girls Hockey team is at the start of their 2019-2020 season.
Senior co-captain, from Malden High School, Bethan Taddeo started playing hockey when she was just seven years old, citing her father’s coaching and encouragement from her family as the reason for her initial interest. This is her last year playing for the Mustangs, which she describes as “bittersweet,” but she is hopeful for the season. She wants to “have a good record,” but says it is not “really about winning.” She stated she really wants to “focus on inclusiveness and making sure the team is bonding well,” as it is the first year that eighth graders have been allowed on the team.
Personally, Taddeo wants to “be a good teammate and a good captain,” as well as “making sure everyone on the team feels supported, included, and pushed to do their best.” Taking her position as captain, she is “trying to find her place,” after the team lost the six senior players who graduated last year. Describing them as “some of [their] best players,” Taddeo says she is trying to “fill their shoes.”
Junior Sarah Whitehouse is excited for this year, and hopes to “win more.” She expressed that “overall [the] team is getting along way better than [they] ever have,” and has been acting like a family, something she learned was very important “in order to play well.” Whitehouse thinks that teamwork is “everything” and that “without it, no games would ever be won.” Whitehouse originally decided she wanted to play Ice Hockey because she knew “[she] couldn’t go a season without playing a sport” and “no other winter sports interested [her].”
Erin Allen, senior co-captain from Medford High School, has been playing hockey since she was three years old. This year, she is hoping to “accomplish a season where everybody has fun,” and “want[s] to be able to say that every single one of [them] put in 100% effort even if [their] record doesn’t show it.” Allen hopes to be a “great leader” and to “set an example for the younger girls that may just be starting to learn how to skate.” Allen is hopeful for the girls to “play as a team” and that everyone “has a great season.”
The girls hockey team is looking forward to this season and hopes to become closer as a team. Being a team family is very important, and may even be the most important thing in order for a team to play well. This year is hoped to be a great year and all players are excited to be playing and to be back on the ice, some for their final season.
