Photo: Courtesy of Northeast Intercounty Scholastic Hockey League
WESTFORD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Jannelle Cioffi fondly remembers her daughter Delilah playing on the girls hockey team while attending high school at Westford Academy.
"She looked forward to going to school every day because she could play hockey in the afternoon when they had practice," Cioffi said.
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The problem was that some of Delilah's friends at other high schools did not have a girls team; instead, they had to play on the boys team.
"If she’s 100 pounds and a 6-foot male is 200 pounds, that’s double her body weight. For her, if she gets hit by a boy, she could get seriously injured," said Cioffi.
This motivated Jannelle, her husband Michael, and Bright Matter Sports & Entertainment CEO Dennis Franczak to launch the Northeast Intercounty Scholastic Hockey League.
The league is for high school girls in grades 9-12 whose schools do not have a female hockey team.
"Lowell, Tyngsboro, Dracut, they do not have girls varsity hockey or JV," Jannelle said.
Player enrollment is currently open. Teams will be assembled based on players' high schools and geography. The puck will drop on the inaugural season Monday, Dec. 2.
"I look forward to collaborating with community stakeholders to ensure a successful season for everyone," Michael Cioffi said in a press release. "Our vision is to open doors, inspire dreams, and unite communities through and for the love of hockey."
"We’re very excited, it should be a lot of fun," Jannelle Cioffi told WBZ NewsRadio. "We’ve gotten so many emails from girls saying they were excited about it. One girl in New Hampshire we had a call with last night, and she couldn’t sleep because she was so excited about the fact that she has a place to play."
Cioffi said their initial plans are for 8-12 varsity teams in Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, with eventual expansion plans to include junior varsity teams and other parts of New England.
WBZ's Shari Small reports.
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