Rebekah Rudd was at soccer practice three years ago as a Hanover High freshman when she heard the girls hockey team was in need of backup goaltenders. Game for an adventure, she began tending net for one of the Hanover Wild’s U14 youth teams as preparation for high school tryouts, then made the varsity as one of three backstops.
“I thought I wasn’t going to play hockey again,” said the junior, who took over as the Marauders’ starter during last year’s playoffs and helped them win their 10th consecutive NHIAA title. “But goalie seemed like it would be new and maybe fun.”
Rudd had played two years of hockey as a left wing during her seventh- and eighth-grade years but knew she wasn’t likely to make the Marauders while skating out.
She served a year’s goaltender apprenticeship behind Claire Yegian and alongside fellow newcomer Aidan Stone, who has since graduated, then ascended to the top job down the stretch last winter.
“She’s come a long way and gotten more confidence and she loves playing goalie,” said Hanover High coach John Dodds. “You can see her passion and enthusiasm. Anyone who’s willing to show up for 5 a.m. practice to have hard, rubber discs shot at them has to really want to be there.”
Rudd, the oldest of six children, said she enjoys being a critical component in almost every game. That’s the aspect that sometimes drives youngsters from the position, but Rudd’s embraced it, along with a steep learning curve.
“Because I started so late, I didn’t have any bad habits,” she said.
Rudd wastes little motion in moving around her crease. She shows talent for having pucks stick to her, resulting in few rebounds.
It’s something on which Hanover goaltending coach Tucker Garitty-Hanchett has focused in teaching her the position.
“She’s an incredible athlete and a hard worker,” Garrity-Hanchett said, noting that having three goaltenders during each of the past two years allowed him to work individually with one netminder at all times. Rudd is backed up by sophomore Katelyn Smith this season.
Dodds said Rudd, who was also a member of Hanover’s diving team last winter, has progressed to the point where she’s able to corral loose pucks for her defenders and contribute outlet passes on occasion.
“She always wants to learn more,” the coach said. “Beginners have turned out well for us at goalie the last few years.”
Down a set of drawers: Garrity-Hanchett drew an outsized assist on Friday night at the start of the Lebanon boys hockey practice. Raiders senior Brian Daly, one of the team’s toughest players but certainly not its tallest, arrived at Campion Rink minus his protective shorts.
Daly, the son of former Dartmouth College player Mike Daly, borrowed a pair from Garrity-Hanchett, who is 6-foot-4 and works at the rink. The 18-year-old lifted his jersey to reveal the borrowed breezers pulled up almost to his armpits, eliciting laughter and a round of stick-taps on the ice from his teammates.
Raiders coach Jim Damren, however, demanded 30 pushups from Daly, who banged them out with military precision. Did the punishment fit the crime?
“That’s what you get if you’re a captain and you’ve never forgotten anything before,” Damren said with a smile.
Tenney time: Hartford High has hired former Stevens High standout and 2013 graduate Danielle Tenney to be its softball coach. She replaces Bob Beisler, who was 9-25 the past two years.
Tenney was an all-state player at Stevens and played in 12 games during three softball seasons at Sacred Heart (Conn.) University. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Texas and works as a social worker in Claremont. She has coached at the U12 and U14 youth levels.
“Living in a small town, it’s hard to get the training you need to be the best in your league or prepare for the next level,” Tenney said in a Hartford release. “I wish I could have experienced it sooner. I want to take everything I have learned and give it back to the younger players and build a program that this school is proud of.”
Hartford’s last winning season was a 10-7 mark in 2014 under Gary Gervais, who was 61-90-1 during his nine-year stint at the helm. The program’s last playoff victory occurred in 2012, when it defeated Springfield to advance to the VPA Division II quarterfinals. The Hurricanes had previously competed in Division I.
Hartford is 149–190-1 during the past 20 years, with five winning seasons and a 5-22 postseason record in that span. The Hurricanes are 15-43 in the playoffs since their 1974 debut and have never reached a state title game, losing twice in the semifinals. The most recent of those games came in 1998, when a 16-3 campaign ended with a 9-0 loss to BFA-St. Albans.
Cracked track: Lebanon High hasn’t hosted a track meet in several years because the oval around the football field features cracks and holes. The track is also used regularly for exercise by community members.
Asked via email for an update, SAU 88 superintendent Joanne Roberts replied that the Lebanon school board’s “Finance and Facilities Committee recently discussed future facilities and maintenance projects … including District-wide projects such as carpet replacements, window replacements, anticipated roof maintenance and the track.
“The Committee plans to provide the Board with a draft-prioritized facilities and maintenance project list, including anticipated project dates for the next 5-10 years, this spring. Specific to the LHS track, (facilities director) Dana Arey would have a design concept and rough estimate of cost to present to the Board at that meeting.”
Only the strong survive: Mascoma High wrestling coach Rick Simula had only nine healthy wrestlers for last week’s match with NHIAA Division III foe Newport. The Royals began the season with 26 competitors but injuries, illness and defections have whittled the roster down.
“We run a pretty tight ship, and that’s natural attrition,” said Simula, who has a roster of 14. “The kids we have left are tough and work hard every day.”
Simula said last season’s Royals began with 24 wrestlers and finished with 16. He’s encouraged for the young program’s future by the fact that adjacent Indian River Middle School has a bountiful crop of grapplers and that numbers have crept up for the open-mat days he hosts in the summers.
Notes: Max Woods, a 2011 Hanover High graduate now working as a local carpenter, is the first-year coach of the Marauders’ junior varsity boys hockey team. … Hanover field hockey junior Kate Blaisdell and senior Ella Edmonds are on the All-New England region first team chosen by Max Field Hockey. Teammate and senior Macy Curtis is a member of the second team. … Thetford Academy senior Grace Davis has signed a national letter of intent to high jump at Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University next year. She has won back-to-back Vermont all-division titles in the event. … Newport’s unified basketball team ended a 31-game winning streak for Fall Mountain last week. … Kimball Union hockey player Adam Fantilli was one of Canada’s alternate captains for the recent Youth Olympics in Switzerland. The team’s 17 players were all 15 years old.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.