Ice, camera, action!

ARHS senior Ivorie Arguin and junior Felix Goeckel have both been active members of local hockey teams since they were in elementary school.

But according to ARHS athletic director Victoria Dawson, there has never been a dedicated Amherst girls’ ice hockey team. “It wasn’t really a surprise to me, because there’s only two girls’ teams in Western Mass; Pope Francis and Longmeadow,” said Arguin.

In order to allow students like Arguin and Goeckel to continue to play ice hockey, Amherst has collaborated with a Springfield Catholic private high school, Pope Francis.

According to Dawson, the co-op with Pope Francis began three years ago. The co-op consists of Amherst girls players driving to Pope Francis nearly every day for practice and games, and in exchange, they play on the Pope Francis girls’ team.

That being Arguin’s freshman year, she jumped at the opportunity to join the team, having purposefully transferred to ARHS from the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (PVCICS), where she had gone to school since kindergarten.

Since joining the co-op, Arguin and Goeckel have found a sense of community unlike any other. “We’re with each other every single day,” Arguin said. While it was hard to bond at first, being surrounded by each other so much, and growing up together as players has created a stronger sense of community than others, Goeckel said.

“You spend so much time at hockey, like every year, so much time that you grow really close to your teammates in a way that I don’t think any other sport does,” said Goeckel.

The team has added significant team bonding outside of practice. “We’ll bowl once a year and we always have team dinners [and] Christmas parties,” Arguin said.

However, while the team has easily accepted Arguin and Goeckel, and others from different schools, it’s harder with their head coach Chris Connors.

“[Connors] kind of forgets [we go to ARHS] especially since I’m one of the captains and there are four other captains who go to Pope Francis. He forgets that we have different school times…and [we have to] work for it with all the driving,” said Goeckel, noting it takes two hours round-trip for the two to get to and from practice each night.

Having such important roles on the team, captain and goalkeeper, has also helped Arguin and Goeckel find their places on the team. “Being a goalie has really helped me grow into feeling like I’m a part of this team, be a leader, and be an individual. It’s helped me be a lot stronger mentally,” said Goeckel.  

The time and mental commitment is worth it to both Arguin and Goeckel, in terms of what hockey has added to their life and what the game has taught them.

“What I learned the most from hockey and especially playing on Pope [Francis] is the idea of perseverance,” said Goeckel. “The sport teaches you that you win and lose as a team, and with your teammates. You learn how to rely on people, how to get through tough situations, and how to have this inner strength that hockey gives you.”