The First Salem News Article

Jean DePlacido

The combined Salem State-Endicott College women's club hockey team is off to a great start this season.

A year ago, Salem State student Taylor Orlando approached Rockett Arena rink manager John O'Neill inquiring about the possibility of starting a women's program. O'Neill agreed to coach the team, and this season he handed over the coaching duties to Danielle Finocchiaro.

"John asked me to coach last year, but I also coach the Danvers Girls U-12s and help out with a couple of other teams, so it just didn't fit into my schedule," said Finocchiaro, a Danvers Middle School physical education teacher.

"The team is doing great in our first organized year after getting off to a bit of a rocky start. It's tough getting a program going, especially with two different schools involved, but I am so lucky to have three great captains. They all want the program to succeed even if they won't be around by the time we get varsity status."

Orlando, a forward, is the captain of the team, while Endicott's Sarah McMahon (a defenseman) and Erin Shattuck (goalie) are captains representing Endicott. (Unfortunately, the team will lose Shattuck next semester when she goes abroad to study).

Finocchiaro is assisted by Peabody's Vin Grifoni, who also serves as scheduling coordinator. Grifoni played for Lynnfield High and later for several amateur leagues. His daughter Michelle Grifoni is a sophomore softball player for the Vikings.

The women's hockey team started practicing shortly after Columbus Day and will play through February.

Opponents on the 15-game schedule include other club teams from Northeastern, UMass Lowell, Babson, MIT, Harvard, Wheaton and Wellesley, as well as a couple of U-19 programs like the Middlesex Islanders. Griffoni set up 10 homes games, and has been getting calls from schools wanting to set up additional games.

"Some players were busy with fall sports so they joined us late and we'll lose others to spring sports, but they are all very serious about hockey," said Finocchiaro. "We've been averaging two games a week, and all the ice time we can get really helps develop skills. We may even be able to extend the season into March because Salem State still has ice.

"Vin has been a big help. He does a lot of refereeing and has found other college club teams that are looking for games, so we've added them. He's a forward, and I played defense so we split our duties by positions. Aisling Mullen, who was a goalie on the team last year when she was a student at Endicott, is our goalie coach. For club status we have a really great program; hopefully, in a year or two it will have varsity status."

Endicott wanted to split the program in January and have its own team, said Finocchiaro, but the girls didn't want to do that. After bonding as a team, they chose to finish the year playing together as one squad.

"It took a while for me to learn all their names because we had 35 players on the roster at one point," Finocchiaro said. "The split is pretty even between the two schools with two goalies from each. I decided to split the lines and defense pairings not only by ability but by schools; it's worked out very well. We have a Salem State forward line, an Endicott line, and a mixed one. Defensive pairings have two from the same college.

"This is a huge building process for us, and now we're in much better shape organization-wise. The other night, we had a major fundraising event at the Salem State men's game."

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