It wasn’t so long ago that the Wellesley High School girls’ hockey team was a powerhouse. It won Division 2 state titles in 2018 and 2019, and shared honors in 2020 after the championship game was nixed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
So it might come as a surprise that just a handful of years later, the Raiders don’t have enough players to fill out a roster of their own. One email we received had a subject line that simply asked: “What has happened to WHS Girls Hockey?”
Most immediately, Wellesley is partnering with Lincoln-Sudbury High School to get on the ice for the 2025-2026 season. Tryouts began this week at the Boston Sports Institute rink, though in this case the schools are just trying to get enough players to compete.
Longtime Lincoln-Sudbury Coach Paul Hardy will partner with Wellesley’s Chris Heaney. Wellesley High Athletic Director John Brown knows Lincoln-Sudbury AD Dan Lee well from Lee’s days in that job at Needham High, and Brown said in an interview with Swellesley that the two are on the same page: “We think the kids will have a good experience with the co-op.”
PT Donato, the former Wellesley High girls’ coach who oversaw the team’s recent three-peat, concurred: “I believe the Co/Op between Wellesley and Lincoln/Sudbury is the best outcome for the future of Wellesley High Girls Hockey.”
Some in local youth hockey are less enthused about the schools joining forces. They wish Wellesley High would encourage more young players to become Raiders, since student-athletes do have lots of options, especially those who have honed their skills for years—and at great expense—with club teams. They say girls’ youth hockey numbers in the town program are strong (USA Hockey also shows growing girls’ participation across the country), and that coaches from private schools and some public schools keep tabs on those coming through the pipeline. Those currently or previously involved in town youth hockey didn’t dismiss the potential upside of high school co-op teams, though pointed to logistical challenges, such as getting to rinks that are further away. Those who we reached out to asked not to be quoted, and that the information they shared be used for background.
“What has happened to WHS Girls Hockey?”
Certainly high school and other athletic teams have their ups and downs, and results can be cyclical based on players, coaches, and the popularity of the sports themselves. Just take a spin through the banners adorning the Wellesley High School gym to see that. But on the heels of Wellesley High’s not-so-long ago success on the ice, the current state of the program is jolting.
Brown said the school was left with no choice but to partner given the low number of players, including hardly any underclassmen. When we spoke with Brown the week before tryouts, Wellesley looked to have 10-13 players, and Lincoln-Sudbury just a handful more.
“Girls’ hockey is really struggling throughout the state,” Brown says. “The numbers down everywhere.”
Boys’ hockey is also having its challenges, and the issue is complicated, as detailed in a March 2025 Boston Globe article headlined “Boys’ high school hockey is ‘having an existential crisis.’ It starts with the rinks.”
Wellesley is not alone in going the co-op route for girls’ hockey, Brown pointed out. Weston High, Wayland High, and Newton South have combined their girls’ hockey teams into one, for instance. Dozens of public and private schools will have co-op girls’ hockey teams (and other sports teams) this season via the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
“We had no freshmen last year, and now have no sophomores and only a few freshmen… The next wave of a large class of hockey players is in 7th grade, and 6th grade looks good, too,” Brown said.
High schools are allowed to pluck a few kids from 8th grade, as Wellesley has done in the past to fill out a roster.
Tom Hammond, who helped start the girls’ hockey program at Wellesley High about 25 years ago when his daughter was looking to play, said there were seasons when 30 students suited up. “That’s obviously no longer the case,” he said, acknowledging that hockey is a big commitment both time and expense-wise.
Brown said Wellesley, pre-COVID, had enough girls for varsity and junior varsity teams. The number dropped to 24 players the first year of COVID, and has been falling since, he said.
Brown said that hockey players coming up through middle school are still finding ways to play, with the more skilled ones doing so for club or junior teams. Some of those players in the past might have headed to private schools, so private schools are now filling slots with kids who would have played at public schools. Though Brown notes that Wellesley High has always lost lots of students, including hockey players, to private schools and the overall increase in the number of Wellesley students going to private schools has been well documented.
Other contributors to fewer players at the high school, Brown said, could be that more young people are specializing in sports—including those other than hockey. The boys’ hockey program used to have varsity and junior varsity teams but is down to just varsity.
“Kids that would normally play three sports are now cutting out the winter sports… some are looking to rest, some are going skiing with their families…,” he said. “We’re seeing this with basketball numbers, too.”
Brown doesn’t discount the impact that the pandemic has had on hockey participation, either, though didn’t immediately go there when asked about the lower number of players at Wellesley High.
Perhaps the upcoming Winter Olympics, including the women’s hockey competition, will spark fresh interest in the sport.
Wellesley High’s athletic director said he’s proud of the girls’ hockey tradition at Wellesley High, as teams have made nine trips to state finals.
“Our hope is to be back to a single team in a couple of years if the numbers allow us to do it,” he said.
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MIAA hockey has its own unique list of issues and challenges. With the proliferation of clubs, and with private schools aggressively recruiting with their own rinks, state of the art facilities and financial aid packages (regardless of actual need), it’s tough for MIAA to compete like they did 30yrs ago with hockey.
However, if Wellesley wants to keep more of their students in the school system and playing high school sports, they need to rethink the freshman year curriculum. Too many stories of kids that did well at the middle school struggling as freshman in high school. Too many stories of kids requiring multiple tutors just to keep up, and too many kids simply stop playing organized sports when they get to the high school (girls lacrosse is a good example of this). If physics is a requirement, then actually teach physics. If half the class has a failing grade, and the other half is getting by because of tutoring, then there is a serious problem going on with the subject matter and the way it’s being taught. So the message here is: if you fix the freshman year struggle more kids will stay in the school system and more kids will continue to play sports.