Blind Brook school board approves ice hockey merger and freshman Mikayla Newman skates into Green Wave

November 15, 2023 at 11:11 p.m.

Freshman Mikayla Newman will be the first Blind Brook student to play on the East Green Wave in the relatively new Section One all girls ice hockey league. She previously was the only female player on the Rye Town/Harrison Titans modified ice hockey team. (Courtesy photo of Rebecca Newman)

Last Saturday (11/11) was a historic day for women's hockey. Teenage phenom Laila Edwards stepped onto the ice during the Rivalry Series against Canada, making her debut for Team USA's senior national team in Tempe, Ariz. In so doing, Edwards became the first Black woman to play for the U.S. women's senior national team.

But for Edwards, 19, a Wisconsin sophomore out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, it was more than breaking a racial barrier, more than a matter of black and white. It was more like showing how a teenager can skate against the best of the best if she puts her mind to it and has the right work ethic to make it happen.

Blind Brook history

In her own way, a Blind Brook freshman ice hockey player has the same kind of passion for the game because Mikayla Newman calls playing hockey her "happy place."

Newman will be making Blind Brook history of her own. She will be the first Lady Trojan ice hockey player to compete in a relatively new Section One all girls league designed to grow the sport in Westchester and beyond with teams called the East Green Wave playing out of the Hommocks Park Ice Rink in Larchmont, the "North" team in Brewster and the Rockland Rockies.

To make that happen, the Blind Brook Board of Education has just OK'd a merger with the East Green Wave that will allow Lady Trojans ice hockey players to compete in that growing league comprised of Section One's top players drawn from 12 schools—Ardsley, Blind Brook, Edgemont, Harrison, Irvington, Mamaroneck New Rochelle, Pelham, Rye, Rye Neck, Scarsdale and White Plains.

That will give Newman, the only female player on the Rye Town/Harrison Titans modified team, a chance to play the game she loves on the next level.

Blind Brook school board
merger approval

The Blind Brook Board of Education merger approval came in response to parents’ requests to allow interested Blind Brook Lady Trojans to play ice hockey for the East Green Wave, according to Blind Brook Athletic Director Kimberly Saxton.

And no Blind Brook Lady Trojan hockey player has shown more interest in playing for the East Green Wave than Newman, a ninth grader who began playing ice hockey when she was eight for area teams with names like the Vipers, Tigers, Titans and Westchester Warriors, a first-year, all girl spring team skating at the U14 age group level.

Doing all that and more (including playing in the Metro League for recreation) takes time, like skating three to six days a week, week in, week out. That means at times Mikayla plays one to four games every weekend. Her skill as a primarily defensive player unafraid of contact—checking as it is called—comes from grueling practices and games at places ranging from the Hommocks Park Ice Rink on the Larchmont/Mamaroneck border to Murray's in Yonkers to the WSA (Westchester Skating Academy) in Elmsford. It also includes waking up at 5 a.m. for individual training sessions between 6 and 7 a.m. with a quick change so she can make it back to school by 8 a.m. with her doctor mothers—Rebecca and Marilyn—alternating the driving that takes her to and fro to wherever she has to go.

Rinks the 'happy place'

"I play with everything I have; it takes all my energy, and I am glad to give it because ice skating is my happy place," she said, explaining why ice hockey means so much to her.

That's why she is looking forward to playing with like-minded girls in the relatively new and ever-growing league.

It has taken time. But now the league is starting to come of age.

In 2021, when Section One launched the new league, it featured just two merger teams, the Westchester/Putnam East Green Wave and the Rockland Rockies. They came into existence because there was interest in a girls’ league, but no Section One high school has its own girls’ varsity ice hockey team. At least not yet, since no school has enough players to stock a full roster of its own players. So the Wave and the Rockies stocked their roster with top players drawn from more than 10 different schools. The result was competitive play, albeit only against each other during an abbreviated season.

The gradual expansion

Last year inter-league and interstate play began for both teams, including trips Upstate as well as to Connecticut and Long Island. That made for tri-state competition. Interest grew. This year's schedule includes a "North" team that plays out of Brewster and an "East" team that will play out of Hommocks.

And the interest keeps growing with a Scarsdale physical education teacher named Stacey Wierl, who has twin daughters playing ice hockey, leading the charge. It was Wierl who was the guiding force who got Section One hockey off the ground a few years ago with the original merger. Now she is taking it one step further with the "North" team and sectional and state championships in the works.

Lady Trojans skaters like Mikayla Newman are excited to be a part of that growth with Mikayla making Blind Brook ice skating history along the way.