After losing former captain Whitney Pappas and assistant captain Sara O’Malley to graduation, former coach Nate Handrahan had the task of naming a new set of captains for the upcoming season.
The captain chosen to succeed Pappas is senior Paige Pietrangelo and the new assistant captains are Brianna Delaney and Dayna Newsom. Kathryn Stack, an assistant captain from the previous season, will remain in the same role.
When new head coach Paul Colontino stepped into his new role he made a decision to stick with the captains named by the former head coach.
“The captains were in place from last season,” explains Colontino. “I think after doing our research with the type of people we’re looking for as captains things seemed to fit very well.”
While the coaching staff has faith in their new captains, the three assistants have faith in their new leader as well.
“She’s so positive, which is something that is important on the team,” states Stack.
“And she’s one of our hardest workers,” explains Delaney. “She’s always at the front of the line doing things and she sets a great example.”
Pietrangelo admits to being excited about her new role as the captain of the women’s hockey team, and hopes the team can exceed expectations during her captaincy.
“I obviously hope we have a great season and win a lot of games,” states Pietrangelo. “I don’t want to say ‘do better than last year’ because I feel like we will do better than last year, but I want us to do the best we have so far in our program.”
With Stack being an assistant captain last season, Delaney and Newsom are new to the role, and excited to step up this season.
“Becoming a captain makes you realize you have a lot of responsibility,” explains Newsom. “You need to be able to lead by example and constantly set an example for the rest of the team.”
With three of the four captains being seniors they realize the strength of their relationship that has grown throughout the years.
“I think we have a special bond because there’s only three of us, so we’ve been really close since we’ve started here” explains Stack.
Going into their last season as members of the team, they hope to inspire others and leave a lasting memory.
“I want us to leave something behind. If we do really great that’s something you can always look back to and refer to. I hope we can inspire the team with our hard work ethic, and the wisdom we’ve gotten from the classes before us,” says Pietrangelo. “I hope we can leave a lot with the team as far as hockey knowledge and simple wisdom goes, but we want them to know they can contact us whenever they need help or guidance or simply need someone to confide in.”
