WEST LEBANON — The members of the Lebanon-Stevens-Kearsarge girls hockey team gathered in a loose circle around coach Mike Sheehan and his staff on Tuesday night following their 7-1 loss to Hanover.
Assistant Bob Maccioli exhorted the Raiders to never give up. Sheehan said he’d work to be better for Lebanon’s next game, and he expected his players to do the same. The Raiders — at least one of them wearing shorts — then gathered together for a senior night photo while Sheehan stepped back to sweep snow from his SUV.
It was only a few strides away in the Campion Rink parking lot.
“It’s tough,” Sheehan said as the snow descended. “We don’t get a chance to talk; that’s part of the issue right now. Other than through screens, we really don’t get a chance to sit and talk. We did a little bit last night before practice, but it’s so much harder this year.”
High school hockey looks normal once on the ice for the moment, save for the facemasks, electronic whistles and absence of spectators. It’s off the ice where the strangeness of a pandemic-tweaked season takes hold.
As home team for Tuesday’s contest, Sheehan’s Raiders had access to three of Campion’s four locker rooms for social distancing; the remaining one went to the two game officials. Since he couldn’t gather everyone into one space, Sheehan put defense and goalies in one room and forwards in another for intermission talks. The doors stayed open to facilitate air circulation.
“Last week, we went down to the far corner (on) the turf there (in Campion’s south end), but it was so icy because it’s been so cold lately this week that we weren’t able to do that tonight,” Sheehan said. “It makes it tougher when you can’t get the whole team together to chat between periods.”
That sent Hanover coach John Dodds and his 13 players to a line of spaced-out chairs along the rink’s north wall. Without fans milling about, Dodds had a measure of privacy for his pregame and between-periods strategy chats. Still …
“One of the biggest problems is talking through a mask,” Dodds admitted. “I can’t really hear most of the girls unless I’m right next to them, and even then sometimes, if you’re standing right next to them and unless they’re loud and very clear, you can’t understand what they’re saying. They can’t really take their masks down. You’ve just got to live with it and try and adapt.”
Other necessary adjustments cut into practice time.
Athletes are required to wear most of their equipment into the rink in the current reality, leaving skates as one of the few elements to add after arrival. They must also leave the facility as soon as their ice slot is over. The rink has cleaning protocols to follow, building a cushion between one group and the next, reducing the time to teach.
That puts an onus on planning for the coaches.
“It’s an everyday process,” said Sheehan, whose team works out three or four times a week at Campion. “I spend so much more time now on practice planning and stuff like that, because you have to have all of your i’s dotted and t’s crossed before you leave for the rink. … Usually we get a little bit more than an hour; this year, a lot of them have been an hour, and it’s tough to get a lot done in an hour.”
High schools buy two-hour blocks of ice time for games; that was still the case Tuesday. Even with that, however, the only warmup Lebanon and Hanover had was the 10 minutes prior to the opening faceoff. The time spent taping sticks or mentally preparing has fallen victim to the pandemic as well.
“We really didn’t have a choice; we’ve got to be happy with the opportunity to be able to play,” Dodds noted. “I think we’ve done well being able to handle no locker rooms, no showers. Practices are a little shorter because the ones before school, they’ve got to go home after we leave practice and have time to shower and get to school.”
Hanover freshman Maeve Lee scored her first five career goals in Tuesday’s victory; each drew quick hugs but no line of skaters to the Marauders’ bench to celebrate with high-fives. No post-game handshakes, either; instead, a face-to-face acknowledgement of the contest concluded, punctuated by sticks smacking the ice. They’ll meet again on Saturday, swapping host and visitor roles.
Dodds and his Marauders were out Campion’s door within five minutes of the game’s conclusion; Sheehan’s Raiders the same. Each gathered for post-game debriefs in the parking lot, respectfully distanced from each other as flakes fluttered from the sky.
A most unusual sight in these most unusual times.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.