Nashua South-Pelham players from two years ago celebrate a goal vs. North-Souhegan. The co-ops are likely on their way to dissolving in favor of a combined all-Nashua team next year. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Zamboni has taken its first lap.

The Nashua Board of Education on Monday night unanimously approved the Nashua Athletic Department’s plan to merge the Nashua High School North and South boys hockey teams for the 2025-26 season, and end the co-op agreements with Souhegan and Pelham.

The Board also unanimously approved the plan presented by Nashua Athletic Director Lisa Gingras for the formation of a tri-op with North, South and Souhegan for girls hockey. Souhegan would be the lead school, but now girls at North and South will be able to play on their own team rather than play on the boys team, as has been the practice. Nashua has never had a girls hockey team, despite efforts to try to get one going in the past.

This is just the first step in the complete approval process for both. Next will be Souhegan athletic director Kelli Braley bringing not only the girls proposal – the Sabers have been going alone for over two decades of the program – but also for options for Souhegan to co-op with another school for boys hockey. She is said to have been sifting through three possible co-op opportunities for the boys, and Braley, Gingras said, approached her about the idea of a co-op with Nashua to help save the Saber girls program.

After that, all the paperwork, including the signed documents dissolving the current co-ops plus the minutes from the two local school board meetings, must go to the NHIAA to begin the approval process at the state level. That process goes through three committees: ice hockey, then classification, then the full NHIAA Executive Council. That final approval wouldn’t come until May.

The risk for Nashua, Gingras admitted, is that the boys hockey plan gets denied and the Nashua teams are left shorthanded without a co-op partner. That would be thanks to the rule that a co-op’s combined school enrollment can’t be larger than the state’s largest single school enrollment, which currently is Pinkerton’s 3,269.

However, the chances of denial are likely very low, as Gingras said, since the NHIAA has already allowed Manchester Central, West and Memorial to form a tri-op now known as the Manchester Kings.

“I’m pretty confident we’ll be OK,” Gingras said. “There was precident set that Manchester was allowed to co-op with their three public high schools. They currently have a population (combined enrollment) of about 3300, which is similar to what our two high schools would be combined going into next year.

“This was not a decision that was made lightly. Looking at the participation from the four schools, it has declined over the last 10 years”

South has always had the more players in the Pelham co-op, but now there are just two from Pelham on this year’s team and one is graduating. Souhegan has just six, and Gingras told the board that when the co-op was first formed 10 years ago, it was basically “a 50-50 split” on the roster between the two. Not any longer (14-6 North).

And, to calm the Board’s fears that perhaps Souhegan would be left without a hockey program, Gingras said that Braley is “working very hard to find a home for her boys, so the boys won’t be left out in the wind.”

Gingras said she’s a little concerned about the girls enrollment figures because it would be over 4,000 in enrollment, “but since Souhegan’s already an existing program, they may allow us on the girls side to add on to that.”

The setup with the girls would be, Gingras said, similar to the cost formula used with the current South-Pelham co-op, that the cost would be linked to the percentage of players each district provides. It all fits financially, she said, because the girls team would be filling the ice time and some of the costs that would have gone to one of the previous boys co-ops. Also, the Sabers would be able to call Conway their permanent home, as they shuttle around several rinks for games and practice time.

Gingras said she does not believe between North and South there are enough prospective girls players to form their own team, so it’s worth the risk to ask the NHIAA for a co-op with Souhegan.

“I believe at this point in time our best option is to partner with Souhegan,” she told the board. “They’ve been an established program as long as I’ve been in this job. On one hand it looks like we’re jumping on with them, but on the other hand they’re very excited to have home ice. And Ms. Braley in my last conversation said that if the partnership doesn’t go through, their team may have to fold.”

The idea is that no teams would have to fold, so now the proposal moves ahead.