Aiden Konold ‘26
Chief Sports Editor
At the conclusion of this past winter’s women’s ice hockey season, Katie Lachapelle, the Holy Cross women’s hockey head coach, knew seven seniors would graduate later in the spring.
Millie Sirum, one of those seniors, scored twelve goals last season, the most a Holy Cross player has scored since the Crusaders joined the Hockey East conference in 2017. Team captains Lilly Feeney and Bryn Saarela also graduated in May.
Despite these key departures, the Holy Cross women’s hockey team remains focused on making freshmen, transfers, and new coaches feel welcome. It’s what makes Holy Cross such an ideal location for elite women’s hockey players to spend the next stage in their hockey careers.
Holy Cross’ rigorous and highly ranked academics are a great selling point. So is last year’s first ever Hockey East playoff win over Boston University, and the opportunity to play against the best women’s hockey players in the world in the most difficult division in all of college hockey, Hockey East.
But what remains Lachapelle’s focus is establishing great relationships with players and coaches alike, especially through the recruitment process.
This year’s program features a new assistant coach, Christina Putigna, and transfers Kenzee Hope and Abby Garvin. Despite entering a new, unfamiliar environment, each of these three additions feels welcome and at ease on the Hill.
When Coach Putigna, who won three straight ECAC titles as an assistant coach at Worcester State before joining the Holy Cross coaching staff, first met Lachapelle, she noticed just how comfortable her future boss is here. As Putigna walked around campus, she noticed campus staff and students asking how Lachapelle’s day was going.
Lachapelle, who knew the names of most everyone she encountered, had a smile plastered to her face as she engaged with members of the Holy Cross community.
“I think [I had] just an instant kind of comfort level with Katie [Lachapelle]. Obviously, coming in for an interview, you get nervous, you get jitters,” Putigna said. “But I think right away, being with her [Lachapelle] and [assistant coach] Janine [Weber] kind of put me at ease and made me feel very calm.”
Lachapelle similarly welcomes incoming freshmen and transfer students with open arms, even before they officially commit to Holy Cross.
Kenzee Hope, a redshirt freshman on this year’s Holy Cross hockey team and a transfer from St. Cloud University, fondly recalls her interactions with Lachapelle throughout her transfer process.
During one particular meeting with Lachapelle, Kenzee gave her soon to be head coach her dad’s phone number. Five minutes later, from inside her office nestled within the Hart Center hockey rink, Lachapelle called Kenzee’s dad.
After Kenzee redshirted her freshman year at St. Cloud and later entered her name into the transfer portal, her dad, Jared, had lots of questions for the person who would be her daughter’s next head coach.
Kenzee’s dad badgered Coach Lachapelle with questions for over an hour and a half. Lachapelle answered every single one of them.
“And so that was huge, because my dad was bombarding her with questions, and she answered all of them,” Hope said. “And [he] still asks a ton of questions, and she still answers.”
Coach Weber still texts Kenzee all the time, just to check in to see how she’s doing or how her summer went. During this past summer’s Stanley Cup Playoff Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers, Putigna texted Kenzee, who is a lifelong Oilers’ fan.
Knowing this, Putigna texted Kenzee, “I’m feeling a letdown from the Oilers.”
“The fact that she knew I was an Oilers’ fan, and texted me during their letdown,” Kenzee said, “it was crazy and it was huge.”
Garvin, a sophomore transfer from the University of St. Thomas, immediately felt support from the Holy Cross coaching staff. During Garvin’s recruitment process, Holy Cross coaches texted her “Hey, do you want to meet up?” whenever they were in Minnesota, Garvin’s home state.
The coaching staff also asked questions of team captains, to ensure that Hope’s and Garvin’s transfer process went as smoothly as possible.
“How are they fitting in? How are they doing? Is there anything else we can do to better support them?” members of the Holy Cross coaching staff asked senior captain Emma Min during Hope’s and Garvin’s transfer process.
Though Hope and Garvin witnessed the warmth of the Holy Cross coaching staff during their visits to campus, they were struck most by just how much time the team spends together.
Following practices, players tend to join each other for team meals at the Kimball Dining Hall. On weekends, upperclassmen host cookouts and potluck dinners. After dinner, players study together in the Dinand stacks, and upperclassmen offer advice to the underclassmen regarding classes and how to establish solid study habits.
This support system is what makes Abby Garvin so excited to play for the Crusaders this season.
“I’m just super excited to be able to play for this program and this team and in this league,” Garvin said, a smile forming on her face. “Just knowing you can be a part of building this program for the future and for future players, and just being a part of the early days in the building blocks is something really special, and a really neat opportunity. I’m just really excited to play for a program as great as Holy Cross is. And just, I’m excited to get to wear the shield.”
Kenzee Hope is grateful for the chance Lachapelle provided her, and is proud to be a Crusader, given this program’s warm and welcoming team culture.
“For me to be given that opportunity… from Katie [Lachapelle], coming from the portal, and coming from a different program and conference, to come to the east and to be picked up… was huge,” Hope said. “I see this program going so far, and to be a part of that program is a reason why I want to bleed purple. I want to be bleeding purple.”
Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics
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