Rockland to Hallowell. Fryeburg to Gorham.
Plenty of Maine’s high school ice hockey players make commutes like these — hour-long, highway-less drives — daily for games and practices. They’re the kids who keep Maine high school hockey alive, filling out the rosters on the co-op teams that make up the majority of the state’s competitors.
Jace Young, a junior at Oceanside High School in Rockland, plays for the Cony/Hall-Dale/Monmouth/Winthrop/Erskine boys’ co-op team, a solid 50-plus mile commute each way from his Cushing home to the Bank of Maine Ice Vault in Hallowell.
A quartet of Fryeburg Academy girls play for the Gorham High School co-op. Freshman Azalea Grant, sophomores Carlin Galligan and Isabel Brito and senior Greta Grant travel about 40 miles on Route 113 to Gorham’s home ice at the University of Southern Maine. The Grants are homeschooled but compete in sports for Fryeburg Academy.
These kids, and the others who share similar experiences, embody the idea of “for the love of the game.” In addition to completing remarkable near-daily commutes, high school hockey schedules buck the average high school sports traditions and typically involve early morning or late night practices and games.
For Young, that means returning home close to midnight five nights a week following the Cony/Hall-Dale/Monmouth/Winthrop/Erskine co-op team’s hourlong 9 p.m. practices. Though he started playing at age 5 and competed for years on the travel circuit with the Maine Coast Storm, the 16-year-old Cushing resident never got to play for a school until now.
Oceanside’s athletics department couldn’t find a match for Young during his first two years of high school. The Cony/Hall-Dale/Monmouth/Winthrop/Erskine boys’ co-op team stepped up to take him this winter. He knew none of his teammates.
“At the beginning I kind of felt like a fish out of water, but as time’s gone by I’ve gotten really comfortable,” Young said. “I’ve learned to be more confident and open-minded.”
The team competes in Class B North. Fortunately for Young, the team’s road games at rinks in Dover, New Hampshire, and Presque Isle fall on weekends. A road game against Camden Hills, held at the Midcoast Recreation Center in Rockport, is basically a home game for Young, who will not travel with the team for that game. The right wing/center, who plays soccer for Oceanside, meets the team at Cony High School to travel to road games.
On school nights, contests in Orono and Bangor make for late nights. Young, a full-time lobsterman in the summer and fall, embraces the long days.
“I’m not really one to get tired, that’s just not how I am, really,” Young said. “It’s honestly fun to experience it all. I’m not one who hates driving. I enjoy it.”
Galligan, who started playing at 4, originally played in New Hampshire growing up.
“It’s really fun knowing players from the five different schools on the team,” said Galligan, who sometimes sees her hockey teammates supporting her at her Fryeburg Academy soccer and softball games outside of the hockey season.
Brito, who moved from New York City to Maine during her freshman year of school with her mom and brother, grew up playing in a recreational co-ed hockey program. The opportunity to play on an all-girls team is worth it, she said, because of the relationships she’s built with her teammates.
They also have to “budget time” for any winter weather. Fortunately, the girls have never missed a game or practice, yet.
Galligan and Brito usually commute together from the school. The Grants, who live in Brownfield, commute together with their father Dave, an assistant coach on the team.
“I wouldn’t say it’s that much of a big deal even though it’s a long drive,” Brito said. “It’s definitely worth it.”
