The Washtenaw United took the ice three years ago and the program has been skating along providing high school girls the opportunity to play the great game of hockey.
“We started the team in 2020-21 to give players outside of the three Ann Arbor high schools within Washtenaw County a place to play,” said Adam Winters, who has been the team’s coach since the first face off in 2020. “In each of the two seasons we’ve been eligible for the playoffs (we were an affiliate team our first year), and we lost to eventual state champs Liggett.”
The team also won the ‘Tree Town Trophy’ (best record against Pioneer and Skyline-Huron) during the 2021-22 season. Huron-Skyline won the trophy last season.
The Washtenaw United, who are made up of players from mostly Dexter, Chelsea and Saline, recently moved from the Cube in Ann Arbor to the Arctic Coliseum in Chelsea as the team’s home rink. They also hope to move up in the win column this year after going 8-18-1 last season.
“We were moved down to Division 2 based on our record from last year and we’ve set our sights on a strong playoff run and hopefully a D2 championship,” said Winters. “We have some strong incoming players who will contribute immediately.”
United’s team strengths include the close bond of the players and a family atmosphere that bond creates. “It’s a very close-knit team,”Winters says. “The girls get along great and love spending time with each other.”
The team will work on all facets of the game during the course of the season with an emphasis on improving the special teams (power play and penalty killing) and scoring goals.
This year’s team captains are Reagen Kopitsch (Dexter, senior, wing); Julia Berkholz (Dexter, senior, Defense); Cecilia Henriksen (Chelsea, senior, center); and Sydney Clark (Saline, junior, center). Other key returning players include junior goalie Trista Tracy (Chelsea) and sophomore defenseman Lilly Schlack (Saline).
Key new players include junior Daphne Grant (forward, Dexter); freshman Brynn Gordon (defenseman, WiHi); freshman Kaysi Hohner (forward, Saline); and freshman Maddy Church (forward, Dexter).
The team played two early-season games in November, falling 2-0 to Huron-Skyline and defeating Northville 8-0. Upcoming games include Dec. 2 against Cranbrook-Kingswood and Dec. 9 vs. Bloomfield-Birmingham.
The United will play on Feb. 8 and Feb. 10 against the other Ann Arbor teams for the Tree Town Trophy.
See full schedule HERE
