On January 6, 2020, the Hill Girls Ice Hockey team secured a significant win against Taft with a final score of 4-3. This win placed the Hill team 8th in the USA independent prep rankings It also served as the 100th win for Girls Ice Hockey Head Coach Ari Baum,.
“Our program has never beaten Taft before, though we have only played four times,” Baum said. “We weren’t playing teams of that caliber until very recently. Taft is a perennially top-10 program, as is Exeter who we beat last month, and Kent who we tied last month. What is special is that we are not lucking our way to these outcomes, but playing very well and really controlling the tempo right from the start. Against both Taft and Exeter, we got out to quick leads and stayed in control throughout those contests, playing to our identity of not giving up possession of the puck.”
The everyday practice schedule for the team is, on average, an hour and a half, with different themes each day, “Get After Monday” and “Technical Tuesday,” for example. Practices normally start with a warm-up made up of competitive small-area game drills where teammates compete against each other with high energy while keeping score. After that, the players would get into plays that include power plays or penalty kills. The team also spends a lot of time working on their defensive and offensive zones. According to Liz MacMurray ’20, one of the captains, practices help the team focus on all areas of the game, this brings the game energy they need to succeed in practice.
“The work ethic on this team is incredible, as is their level of commitment,” Baum said. “These student-athletes put in a ton of time to this program and represent The Hill School with great pride and distinction. There is no question that there is a culture of commitment around this team that I feel has been there for a few years now. So, I also give credit to many student-athletes who have graduated in previous years. There is also a high level of talent on this team, and I’d like to think very strong chemistry as many of these players played together previously.”
“We could only be better,” MacMurray said with regard to the team’s next steps. “We could even improve on some aspects of the game against Taft because it was such a good win, so we definitely have momentum going into a tough stretch of games with the teams in NEPSAC [New England Prepatory School Athletic Council]. We could only use it as a motivation to keep on being great.”
