After enduring a setback, the New Hampshire Lady Monarchs are going back to their roots and building from the ground up.

The program fielded a 12U team for the past three years, and a fall prep team for ages 16-19, but now the association has decided to focus on player development at the younger levels.

“Last year, we reached a crossroads where we had some girls that would be moving up to 14U, some would stay at 12U and some would stay at 10U,” said President/Coaching Director Jeremy Vega. “We couldn’t support the older age groups, but we had enough girls to field a 10U team. From a strategic standpoint, we decided to go with a 10U team that would allow the girls to grow within our program.”

The Lady Monarchs are the only girls program in the greater Manchester area with a 10U program. Vega has already received queries from girls who are considering joining the team next year.

“We have girls outside the program that are playing on boys teams who have expressed interest in coming to our program because they want to play on an all-girls team,” Vega said.

Skill development is the major focus of the Lady Monarchs, with much of the credit going to a sextet of people.

“We have a fantastic head coach in Stephanie Boutin, who played at [the University of] Minnesota and [the University of] Connecticut,” said Vega. “We also have a professional staff [Todd Spencer, Ryan Frew, Matt Morrow, Clint Edinger and Justin Soryal] that runs practices according to the American Development Model.”

Given the various goals of the ADM, Vega was quick to note what the results have been for the Lady Monarchs.

“They’re actively engaged,” he said. “Skill stations allow the girls to be actively engaged. And they get a lot of repetitions. They’re high-tempo and high-quality.

“It really allows the girls to blossom. From our experience, watching the girls grow, we see they’re also having fun and maximizing their skill development on the ice.”

Given the ADM emphasis by Boutin and the rest of the staff, the retention rate for the Lady Monarchs is going in a positive direction.

“It’s important for us that, every time we have players at the rink, they have fun, they’re learning something new and they have the desire to come back,” Vega said. “That’s our job as hockey coaches and directors, to create that environment for the girls to have fun and want to stay with the program."

Another way the Lady Monarchs hope to build interest in their program is through USA Hockey’s Try Hockey For Free Days, presented by Kraft Heinz.

“We’re going to be holding a try-hockey-for-free-day in February,” said Vega. “It’s part of USA Hockey’s initiative for growing the game and we’re going to host it here [at the Tri-Town Ice Arena in Hookset]."

“We’re hoping to get more girls interested in the game."

One Lady Monarch alumna whose name could become well known in future years is Jordyn Wasiejko. She was picked for the USA Hockey New England Yankee Conference Festival Girls 13U Team.

“She’s played in our program since she started playing hockey,” Vega said. “She also played for the New Hampshire Select Team last year.

“I definitely think she’s an example of the type of player who’s at a level our girls can aspire to.”

In a sense, the same can be said of the coaches who’ve served in the program.

“Over the last handful of years, we’ve had several, high-level female coaches,” said Vega. “Stephanie played high-level, prep school hockey and [NCAA] Division I hockey. Desiree Casian played at [the University of] Vermont and St. Michael’s [College] and now she plays for the Boston Blades [a team in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League].

“They’ve been fantastic role models for the girls.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.