WOODSTOCK — Although it still wasn’t quite what he imagined, Monday was a day many years in the making for Ian Coates.
The Woodstock High girls hockey coach, now in his ninth year leading the Wasps on the ice, had been trying for much of that time to launch a holiday tournament. The boys team frequently plays in the Phillippe H. Bouthillier Holiday Classic at Hartford High’s Wendell A. Barwood Arena, and Coates wanted to host a similar event for the girls.
The tournament was supposed to debut last season with Hartford, Brattleboro and Lyndon traveling to Woodstock’s Union Arena, but the pandemic crashed those plans. But this year, the two-day event came together, even though Rice Memorial, which replaced Lyndon after the Vikings moved up from VPA Division II to Division I, had to pull out at the last minute due to COVID-19 concerns.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Coates said. “I was always envious of other teams during the holidays having a tournament either to go to or host. With the program getting stronger and stronger, I felt there was a possibility of hosting a tournament because it seemed hard to get into anybody else’s tournament.”
Coates discussed the idea with former Woodstock athletic director Quaron Pinckney, who left in 2020 for the same position in the Burlington School District. The Wasps reached the state finals in 2019, which made Pinckney more inclined to help get the tournament on the calendar.
Woodstock won its first four games this season heading into the event, which doesn’t have an official name but which Coates referred to as the Woodstock Holiday Tournament. The Wasps made it five straight Monday with a 3-1 victory over the rival Hurricanes.
Freshman Kassidy Haley opened the scoring for Woodstock early in the second period. In the third, the Wasps used two goals a minute and a half apart to pull away, with juniors Lily Gubbins and Isabel Konijnenberg finding the back of the net.
“We did a lot of things well on the ice that we work on in practice,” Coates said. “We were prepared, but also the girls were fired up and skating really hard and winning the puck battles, with some pretty sound defense as well.”
Hartford freshman Madison Barwood scored in the final minute to avert a shutout. Hurricanes freshman goaltender Sydney Stillman made 16 saves, while sophomore Meridian Bremel made 10 for Woodstock.
With Rice not playing, the tournament will be reduced from four games to just two, with only Hartford playing on both days. The Hurricanes will play Brattleboro on Tuesday.
Hartford coach Kylie Ammel Young said her team was glad to participate in the event, especially considering Hartford and Woodstock are the only Upper Valley schools in Vermont to sponsor ice hockey. She and Coates both said it would be nice for Lebanon to come as well, but the VPA wanted to schedule only Vermont teams.
“It would have been great. A lot of those girls know each other,” Young said. “Most of our girls come from our youth program, which is either through Hanover or through Hartford and Lebanon. They all grow up skating together, which is what makes it so much fun for the boys to be playing each other in a tournament. It would be great if we had something similar for the girls.”
Coates also said he hopes to have Rutland join in future years for another school along U.S. Route 4. He wanted to have a trophy to award to the tournament winner, but as the omicron variant fueled the latest COVID-19 surge, he figured an on-ice ceremony wasn’t realistic.
While Coates was pleased the tournament was held, he hopes for more in the future.
“It didn’t have quite have the same feeling as a non-COVID year,” Coates said. “Whenever we play Hartford prior to COVID, the stands are full and it gets loud. It didn’t have that exact same feel I was hoping for, but both teams rose to the occasion, and it was a fun game to watch and coach.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.