After several months of struggling with safely scheduling and holding hockey games during the COVID-19 pandemic, Northwood School has finally found a solution that allows its teams to travel to games while still protecting the school’s bubble.
After months of very few games, Northwood’s hockey teams will drop the puck for games throughout March.
On Sunday, February 7, Athletic Director Mr. Gino Riffle sent players and parents an email informing them of the school’s “Two Month Plan,” which entails players from all three teams leaving campus for competitions and overnight stays but has them stay away from campus between contests. The players will go home between matches where they will continue their academic studies virtually and train on their own. Doing this allows players to travel, stay in hotels, and return without quarantining unless required to do so by their state health department. Northwood’s protocols would require students doing such travel to test twice and to quarantine for six days before returning to training, competition, and on-campus activities.
At this point in the hockey season, a typical Northwood hockey team would have played approximately fifty games, but our teams have played fewer than 10 games thus far. The new plan could see teams playing between 10-20 games before the start of spring break on March 26.
After receiving Riffle’s email, many players shared their excitement to finally play games. Marina Alvarez ‘21 said, “I’m super excited that the school is giving us this opportunity to go home so we can play games again and get back to it. I look forward to what we have in store and to be playing against some of the most elite teams in the country over break. We are going to get to establish ourselves as a team and I can’t wait to compete together. I am not concerned about doing online school and I know that we all will be keeping up with our work.”
Carson Hall ‘22 plays on Northwood’s Junior Team and he was thrilled with the news. “I’m excited for this opportunity to play games in the upcoming weeks as I’m sure all my teammates are,” said Hall. “With Covid, this year has been challenging; however, my teammates and I have stayed determined and had a goal of getting better every day on and off the ice for when opportunities such as the games in the upcoming weeks present themselves,” he said. “The team has certainly earned it and are ready and excited for this tremendous competition upcoming in the future,” added Hall.
Coaches shared the player’s excitement about the plan. Mr. Trevor Gilligan, Head Coach of the Girls’ Hockey Team, said, “I am really happy for our players and the boys to have the chance to compete in games in March. I can’t commend our athletes enough in how mentally resilient they’ve been in these trying times. A full slate of competition coming up provides a great opportunity to show off the work they’ve put in on and off the ice since September. They’ve certainly earned it.”
