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MA Legislators Welcome Shrewsbury Colonials Girls Hockey Team
Central MA lawmakers Rep. Hannah Kane, R-Shrewsbury, and Sen. Michael Moore, D-Millbury, applaud the girls’ high school hockey state champions
Kinga Borondy/ Telegram & Gazette, Telegram & Gazette
Fifteen years after the co-op Shrewsbury High School girls’ hockey team played its first season, members were invited to the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston on Thursday to celebrate the Division 1 state championship.
The team, 24 teenage girls, greeted their legislators, Rep. Hannah Kane, R-Shrewsbury. and Sen. Michael Moore, D-Millbury. handed the governor and lieutenant governor a team jersey, listened attentively to their accomplishments being extolled in an (unofficial) House session, and toured the capitol taking it all in stride. And wearing white high tops.
It was a thrill.
But not as big as winning a championship at TD Garden. It was a special moment together for a team that had worked together for four seasons just for that moment, the last victory on the legendary ice.
We earned this as a team,” said junior Bridget McLaughlin as she carried the award the team brought to the Statehouse to show their legislators and governor.
Healey “a little jealous”
Both Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kimberly Driscoll praised the team for its accomplishment.
This is special to win at such a high level, Driscoll told the athletes.
Healey admitted he was a little envious of the state champions, believing his team never won a state championship in his high school basketball career.
This is awesome, Healey said as he admired the trophy signed by each athlete.
The team members come from four different regional public high schools; Shrewsbury has 16 players, Westborough has seven members, and Wachusett and Milford each have one student on the team. Only four, the co-captains, are seniors. The rest will get to play next season.
This season culminated the four seasons we played together, said team co-captain Rachel Bunsick. We made the playoffs every year and advanced every year. This is the year we turned it around.
“We’ve all grown up together”
He admitted it was an emotional moment for the athletes, especially the four graduating seniors, captains.
We all grew up together, said Maddie Mrva, co-captain of the team. We’ve been playing hockey all our lives. We get along so well. We are committed and it showed on the ice. It helped with team chemistry. We always had each other’s backs.
That bond formed while playing with the boys on club teams and then in high school added to their sense of camaraderie and togetherness during the season.
It made the season feel so much better, Bunsick said. This is something we’ve been working towards all our lives.
Coach Frank Panarelli said many of his athletes have been playing all their lives, starting on the ice when they were 4 or 5 years old.
It’s not a sport you can pick up later. “It takes time, commitment and dedication, especially when you’re playing at this high level,” Panarelli said. Many of the girls played on boys’ club teams and switched to girls’ teams when they were 10-12 years old.
He suggested Shrewsbury start a team when the girls got tired of playing on the boys’ teams. The team plays in the Merrimack Valley Conference.
The girls wanted to have their own program, said Jay Costa, Shrewsbury High School athletic director. It was a great opportunity to give the girls their own team. It was a regional success.
Hard work
When Shrewsbury High School’s boys hockey team won a state championship several years earlier, he saw the girls’ eagerness to achieve the same.
It required hard work: Daily practices after school, two games a week, more than 25 games a season. Their record this year: 21-2-2. Their final result against St. Marys in Lynn was 4-1; great win.
Team mom Pamela Panarelli said she has had the privilege of watching the girls grow and develop both as athletes and as people.
“I didn’t get a chance to play growing up, but I’m a huge fan and I love supporting them,” he said. I love girls like they are my own. They are just awesome.
Bunsick has two brothers who played hockey, and captain Katie Vona also has a brother who did. Co-captain Taylor Ryder said his father, who had played hockey when he was younger, started his whole family playing when they were young.
I fell in love with the sport, Ryder said. He has played on the same team as his siblings; at one time the Colonials had three Ryder girls. This season there were only two of them, Taylor and Mia.
My older brother played, Mrva said, adding that his siblings taught him the game and supported his team very well. He was there when we won.
One of Bunsick’s brothers was on the winning state championship team. And although they were both a little jealous when his team won the championship, they hugged him in congratulations.
Their last two opponents were private schools that were able to recruit players from across their region. Shrewsbury recruits from four districts and all of its athletes reside within their district.
Coming into the tournament, the Colonials were ranked third behind Notre Dame of Hingham and No. 1 St. Marys of Lynn. Coming up: They were state champions.
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