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Conant senior Tristin Herr takes a shot during the Monadnock Mountaineers’ ice hockey game against visiting Kingswood at Keene Ice on Wednesday. -
Conant’s Sophia Spingola stands for the national anthem before the Monadnock Mountaineers’ game against Kingswood. -
Conant’s Kaden Kirby keeps an eye on the puck from goal during the Monadnock Mountaineers. -
Conant senior Tristin Herr skates during the Monadnock Mountaineers’ game against Kingswood. -
Conant’s Kaden Kirby keeps an eye on the puck. -
Conant’s Kaden Kirby wears a special goalie mask.
Five Conant student-athletes found a new home for hockey this winter, as Tristin Herr, Kaden Kirby, Kam Castricone, Sophia Spingola and Aerowyn Schwertz have joined up with skaters from Monadnock and Fall Mountain to found a cooperative NHIAA program.
It has been three years since the Conant boys dissolved their hockey partnership with ConVal, and this winter, the Conant girls were forced to follow suit after neither school was able to secure ice time for their games. Luckily for them, Fall Mountain and Monadnock welcomed Conant into their new cooperative team, the Monadnock Mountaineers.
For Herr, a senior, the Mountaineers gave him a second chance at skating for his school.
After his freshman year on the Griffins, the boys’ program disbanded, and Herr was forced to play club hockey up until this season.
“I’m pretty excited to be able to have this opportunity to have this team,” Herr said.
Including Monadnock-Fall Mountain-Conant, seven of the nine NHIAA Division III boys’ hockey programs are cooperative teams made up of players from multiple school districts.
The Mountaineers sport a hybrid jersey with a Husky, a Wildcat and an Oriole behind the logo and stripes of Monadnock green, Conant orange and a Fall Mountain maroon-adjacent red.
That’s the jersey that Kirby, a junior puts on each game night before skating out to his position as starting goalkeeper. Kirby’s older brothers were among the first to play for the ConVal-Conant boys’ team, but with that out of the picture as he entered high school, he joined the basketball team. A year ago, Kirby was suiting up for the team that would eventually play in the state championship game, but when hockey was put back on the table, Kirby jumped at the chance.
“Hockey has been one of my most favorite sports,” Kirby said. “Always has been. I just love being at the rink. I’ve thought about both, but in the end, hockey just brings me more joy to play.”
Spingola, a junior, was voted captain of the ConVal-Conant girls’ hockey team at the end of last season, and she spent the summer preparing for a big season as one of the Griffins’ experienced leaders. After years at the rink practicing alongside older sister Tessa and learning from coach/dad Chris, it was the younger Spingola’s time to shine.
“Ever since I found out that I wouldn’t be able to play high school hockey, it was constantly in the back of my mind,” Spingola said. “Griffins has been a huge part of my life ever since my dad started coaching all those years ago, so having to leave that organization in addition to possibly not having a season this year made it a huge loss for me.”
Now, Spingola and Schwertz have joined up with the Mountaineer boys, adjusting to reduced roles and rule changes while trying to acclimate themselves to the team, something Spingola said is easier than you might expect.
“Obviously, being one of the only girls on a boys’ high school team was a massive adjustment, but the boys on this team have made it relatively seamless,” Spingola said. “The kindness and support I’ve gotten not only from the coaches but the boys on this team has been unmatched. This group has accepted me into the team just as they would anyone else, and other than the fact that I’m in a different locker room for practice and games, I truly don’t feel like I’m any different from them. The level of play and intensity on the ice is really exciting to watch and play, and I am so glad that I am able to compete at this level.”
The Mountaineers play their home games at Keene Ice, the former home of the ConVal-Conant Griffins. Griffins girls’ coach Chris Spingola said he was informed at the end of last winter that Keene Ice would no longer be able to host the Griffins.
“After the completion of the season, both ConVal [Athletic Director Larry Pimental], and Conant [Athletic Director Heather Linstad] and I went to work to find a rink that we could use as a home,” Chris Spingola said.
They exhausted every option – their old home at Winchendon School, ConVal’s former home rink in Gardner and as far away as Henniker, Manchester and Nashua, but none could provide both practice and game time. Chris Spingola said he even proposed an all-away game schedule, but that last-ditch effort was not approved by the NHIAA, and the Griffins’ season was not to be.
“The families and the players that have come through our program were willing to do whatever it took to keep it going, but the lack of ice time was too big of a hurdle to overcome,” Chris Spingola said, adding that he plans to continue working to keep the Griffins afloat going forward into next winter.