(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption: ON THE STICK: Princeton Day School girls’ hockey senior star Katherine Levinton goes after a puck in action this season. Levinton’s leadership and offensive production helped PDS produce a 9-11-1 season.

Overcoming Doubts About Team’s Future, PDS Girls’ Ice Hockey Came Together

Bill Alden

For a while last fall, it looked like the Princeton Day School girls’ hockey team wasn’t going to have a season at all come winter.

With head coach John Cook no longer with the program and only a few players signed up, there was a real question over whether PDS could field a team for the 2007-08 campaign.

But with co-coaches Gretchen Jaeckel and Kat Smithson taking the helm and some newcomers taking the plunge into hockey, PDS was in business when the season rolled around.

Co-coach Jaeckel, though noted that things didn’t look so promising once the squad was assembled.

“At the beginning of the season we had to practice at separate ends of the ice due to the disparity in players,” recalled Jaeckel, noting that the inexperienced players just couldn’t skate with the PDS veterans.

Utilizing stellar play from its core of veterans and with the neophytes improving by leaps and bounds, the Panthers exceeded expectations as they posted a 9-11-1 record.

Coach Smithson credited the team’s captains, Noni Ammidon, Katherine Levinton, and Elisa Cichonski, with speeding up the learning curve for the others.

“The progress from the beginning was like night and day,” asserted Smithson.

“The newer players had an eagerness to learn and ask questions. The captains had a tremendous impact on the first-time skaters. They would say ‘if you do this and this, it will equal this.’ They broke it down really simply. Hockey is one of the hardest games to pick up.”

The veterans showed skill as well as leadership as junior star Georgia Travers led the team in scoring with 28 points while Levinton added 16 points and Ammidon scored 10 points. Junior goalie Bryanna Mayes sparkled between the pipes, recording several shutouts.

A key ingredient in the team’s success was its strong chemistry. “The team spirit was really high,” said Jaeckel. “The players were happy and they encouraged each other.”

Smithson noted that the players demonstrated their cohesiveness to the whole school.

“They had psyche days where the whole team got dressed in funny outfits,” said Smithson. “The outfits ranged from fairy princesses to Superman. I think it takes a lot of guts to wear outfits like that at school and they did it with pride. It showed how close they were.”

The younger players showed guts as they overcame their inexperience. “Kaleigh McLaughlin made a lot of progress as a defenseman,” said Jaeckel. “She went from a level nine gymnast to a level one hockey player. Courtney Klein already had hockey skills and she got better and better.”

Things should get better and better for the program with the foundation laid this winter.

“We have a very, very strong junior class,” said Jaeckel whose rising seniors include Travers, Mayes, Charlotte Lescroat, and Lexi Deana-Roga.

Smithson points out that the players are already looking ahead to next winter. “They are embracing the idea of new players coming in,” said Smithson. “They have asked to have lunch with prospective players visiting the school. They have an intra-school e-mail chat room and they are already talking about next season.”

The partnership between Smithson and Jaeckel helped the players embrace things this winter. “I wasn’t sure what I was getting into and how it was going to play out,” said Smithson, a former St. Lawrence hockey standout who is in her first year at PDS.

“Gretchen and I play well off each other. We have similar ideas but we also differ in positive ways. We hardly knew each other in the beginning of the year and now we are friends.”

Jaeckel, for her part, valued the experience of working with her new friend. “Kat and I had a great relationship,” added Jaeckel.

“Kat works at the school and the girls can come in and talk to her. At the end of the season were were a little tired but in a week I was missing it. We are really looking forward to next season.”

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