Students and parents gather in a meeting room at Conway Arena for the newly created Souhegan-Nashua North-South girls hockey co-op team Wednesday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Anna Foley was beaming. She thought this day may never come.

The Nashua High School North senior has been pushing hard for North and Nashua South to have a first-ever girls hockey program. Last spring it officially happened, with the NHIAA approving the plan for a Souhegan-Nashua North/South girls varsity co-op team, and Wednesday night was the first meeting of the program for interested students, their parents, coaches and athletic directors Lisa Gingras (Nashua) and Kelli Braley (Souhegan).

“I’m just really looking forward to this team because I’ve been pushing for this team for the past three years,” Foley said.

Souhegan has had a varsity team for nearly 20 years, but the numbers have dwindled, and Gingras and Braley have been working on a potential co-op for awhile, and it’s finally come to fruition. The Conway Arena – the rink will be the program’s home – meeting room was filled.

Never has there been a girls high school hockey team for a Nashua public high school, while Bishop Guertin has had a program for several years. Gingras put the significance of the program and last night’s meeting into perspective early in the meeting when she addressed the group saying “You know, we’re making history with this team.” Applause followed.

Foley has been playing hockey for 11 years, has had to play on boys teams growing up and the last three years has played club hockey.

“I’m just glad I have this opportunity right now,” she said.

Chinyere Stanley played hockey as a freshman a few years ago at Bishop Guertin, which has varsity girls hockey, but then transferred to North and she was upset there was no girls hockey program.

“I’m really glad we have this program this year,” she said. “I’m really excited, I wish the season started.”

It will all get underway on Dec. 1 when the new team, coached by Souhegan alum Shannon Paquette – she’s coached the one Souhegan team the past couple of years – and her coaching staff greats the new team for the first official practice. However, Gingras and Braley said that there will be meetings, dry land training, and other team activities that they hope to rotate at the three schools over the course of the fall to get everyone involved and to know each other.

Gingras noted at the meeting that there are athletes from fall sports teams at the schools that couldn’t make the meeting due to games. A couple that did were Titans soccer players Sarah Frye and Rosalie Clark.

“I’ve never played hockey but I’ve skated before,” Clark said, “and I think it’s a fun sport to try. So I’m here checking it out.”

Same for Frye, who was intrigued.

“Honestly, the idea of having a (girls) hockey team in Nashua is super exciting, even though I’ve never played before,” Frye said. “I think it’s awesome so many girls want to come out and play as well.

“I’m just checking it out for now, we’ll see what happens.”

Frye, of course, is a well known North athlete in girls soccer and track, but she feels that for her and other athletes, the historical significance is something that attracts them.

“I think it does, yeah,” she said. “Honestly for us this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This wasn’t available to us freshman, sophomore or junior year. So I think it’s amazing kids are going to have this opportunity.”

The flip side is while this is a first for Nashua, there are players from the former single Souhegan team that welcome the merger.

“Everyone was so excited,” Souhegan sophomore Charlotte Dezotell said. “I think it was really good thing to be able to get together and have more people join our team after we had a lot of seniors leave …Everyone is really excited to go further and especially meet the new people that can bring so much good stuff to our team and our culture.”

Braley has coached the Sabers since 2010 but gave way a couple of years ago to Paquette, the only Saber to have amassed 100 points in her career, to focus more on her AD duties. But she has served as an assistant, and the other assistant on the team will be Lauren Norton.

Souhegan has struggled the past few years, and now the page has been turned and this signifies a rebirth. Braley made it clear to the audience that the co-op is an entirely new entity.

“What we’re doing is creating a new program here,” she said. “This is from this day forward a brand new team with new expectations, new outlook and new results, and we’ll set new goals together. … It’s a chance for kids to play a sport they already love or will fall in love with.”

One of the plusses is the program has a permanent home, which the Saber program didn’t have as they moved around a bit to rinks in the southern part of the state, including Conway Arena. But now there is steady ice time at Conway, plus a locker room. The ice time was likely freed up with North and South boys teams co-oping together for the first time, more history.

Some logistics: It’s a co-op team, so there will be no cuts, but there may be players that won’t dress for every game depending on the numbers. There is a user fee, and Gingras added that for the Nashua athletes registration for winter sports opens up on Oct. 15. Braley said that she may have equipment for those that don’t, except for helmets.

Souhegan is the lead school for the co-op. Of course, this isn’t the first time the two schools have co-opped for hockey, as they had a near 10-year boys co-op team with North and Souhegan.

The team — a team name and mascot need to be decided upon — will be part of what is expected to be the NHIAA’s 16 team league. There are three scheduled doubleheaders with the Nashua boys co-op to help create more interest. It’s Braley’s hope that having three schools involved will someday down the road create a single team at all three. But first thing’s first, building the co-op.

“The goal is to grow the number of teams in girls hockey,” she said. “Bring some friends (to join). And next year, and some more friends the year after that.”

Paquette is looking forward to it, and was thrilled about it when Braley first told her about the possibility for a co-op with Nashua.

“I was really excited,” she said. “Kelli was telling me really early, when this might have been a possibility. And every time I would text her, ‘What’s going on? Is there anything going on?’ It was very excited to finally have it go through and have this growth in the program. … I’m excited to hopefully have a full roster.”

There were a lot of happy people at last night’s meeting, but none more than Foley, who wants to be part of history.

“Oh absolutely,” she said. “I’m really glad to be here and I’ve told multiple girls that playing hockey as a girl is a cool thing. It’s really awesome to tell your friends about. It’s just awesome to be here right now.

“It’s amazing. I had a lot of people tell me it wouldn’t happen and the fact that it did is like beyond me. I got told no a lot, and to be here is amazing.”