KP Girls Ice Hockey: Last Of The First

Four years ago — around the same time the Jake Layman era was
beginning — King Philip was sending its  first-ever girls hockey team onto the ice.

As the fourth year came to a close this winter, so did the first class of KP female
athletes to lace up the skates.

"The Last of the First," as they were called by Coach Paul Lyons, skated for the final time as a team this winter.  Leaving the ice were this year’s captains Alyssa  Siegmann and Annmarie DiRienzo, winger Annie Shiebler and utility player Amanda Geuss. Another hockey player who decided to forego the first year, Olivia Florence, is wrapping up her third year with the Warriors.

“That first year, the girls were so young and playing against established programs,” Lyons said. “While it was a rather trying season, the girls held their own and did all right for themselves. When I originally saw the team for the first time at a captains practice, I said to myself, 'Oh my god, we’ve got some work to do going forward.'”

The Warriors worked extremely hard to compete against the other more established girl hockey programs in the area. In that inaugural season, KP was able to grab four wins. Unfortunately, four wins was all they could muster during the next three seasons.

“Four wins each of the four years — I guess you can say that we were a very
consistent team,” the Coach said. “Through those four years, we didn’t progress
as much as I would have liked. Playing in the Southeastern Massachusetts Girls
Hockey League was really tough.”

Things could have been even tougher if not for the emergence of Siegmann between the pipes for the first time in her career.

“The summer prior to the team beginning, we were participating in clinics, and I
realized that we had no goalie going into the season so I decided to do it,”
Siegmann said. “It was rough at first, I actually put the pads on backwards and
it hurt. Wearing a ton of equipment it felt rather awkward and I was not in my
comfort zone, like in softball.”

Coach Lyons agreed that Siegmann’s effort was very important to the team actually taking that first step and moving forward.

“Alyssa had never played goalie and took it upon herself to be the best goalie out there,” the coach said. “She proved that she could take on that role successfully, being named to two all star teams.”

Having Siegmann between the pipes was a comforting feeling for an up and coming program, but the Warriors knew that the offense had to come to play night in and night out if the KP program was to grow. 

DiRienzo, who was one of the few to have actually played hockey prior to
high school, saw the newly established program as an opportunity. The senior
winger and all star had played the sport since the second grade and decided to
step away from the game as an eighth grader. 

“I decided to take a break from hockey and, just as I was going to be a freshman entering King Philip, they put together a team. It was perfect timing and I knew that it was meant to be, “ DiRienzo said. “We knew that we were not going to come in first, but we all worked extremely hard. It was difficult going up against the more experienced teams, but we knew that we were laying down the foundation for future [KP girls hockey] teams.”

Under Lyons, the new program was moving in the right direction, even if their records didn’t show it.

“As far as records go, you always want  to go at least .500 and make the tournament, but the girls knew that they were the underdogs going into every single game,” Lyons said “Yet they still gave it everything that they had and as a coach that’s all you can really ask for.”

“Not winning was not frustrating. We had our ups and downs and sometimes found ourselves outscored by 10 goals, but it was exciting,” Siegmann said. “As a team, we were good about keeping things in perspective, we realized the circumstances and the odds we were up against. Our goal was to build the program.”

At this year’s banquet, Shiebler, who has been part of two KP State Championship teams, gave the coach goose bumps when she said that playing on the girls hockey team was the best high school athletic experience in her life. Both captains know where she’s coming from and hope their efforts eventually allow King Philip to become a team to reckon with in the future.

“Hockey has been a rewarding experience,” Siegmann said. “To see how much we’ve learned and grown over the four years is amazing.”

“We’re pretty lucky,” DiRienzo said. “This group of girls not only became a tight knit group that liked to hang out off the ice, but we became a family and I know
that I’m going to miss that."