By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Bernadette Tenore was your typical girl growing up; participating in dance and ballet. Unfortunately, she hated it. When she happened to watch her older brother Felton playing hockey, however, she immediately became interested. 

“I wanted to try that for myself,” Tenore said. “It looked like a lot of fun. It was fast and incredible – much better than being in a crowded room of girls dancing.”

 

Tenore quickly found that the sport was much different than anything that she had ever done and by far much more interesting than dance. Although her mother tried to talk her out of it, her parents eventually let her try the sport out. She would start with a learn to skate program before eventually moving onto play ice hockey. She would begin as a defenseman in the Norwood Youth Hockey Program before becoming the keeper between the pipes. 

“I was always trying to prevent the other teams from scoring,” Tenore said. “I was much more a defenseman than a forward. I couldn’t shoot and had no interest in goal scoring.”

Playing for the town program, she had to wait her turn to get a chance to put the goalie equipment on and test out the position. The first time she donned the goalie gear, she found that she was back to the original earning stages as she couldn’t move all that well. It would take some time, but she got the hang of it and although she doesn’t remember her first game in goal, she does recall the third game.

“That game was a shoot-out so I remember it well; it has been stuck in my head,” Tenore said. “I was excited, but I was so scared that I would let up a goal to lose the game. I made the save to win the game, but it probably wasn’t as impressive as I remember it to be.”

Tenore would continue to play in the Norwood Hockey League and never tried out for a club team as she didn’t want to disrupt the town team.

“There were not a lot of girls that played goalie in my age bracket so if I had left to join a club team it would have left the team without a goalie,” Tenore said. “I felt bad leaving Norwood high and dry so I stayed with them and never joined a club team.”

Although she didn’t leave the Norwood Youth Hockey Program, Tenore did want to improve her skills in the net.

“I started going to goalie camps where I learned a lot about the position,” Tenore said. “I kept attending camps but I also started to learn on my own. The skill level that I was facing was increasing so I needed to up my game and get better, so I started watching videos that the volunteer dads were giving me along with their tips.”

As she neared high school, Tenore would attend Stop It Goaltending in Boxborough to get ready for the upcoming year. Making the team as a freshman, she quickly found that not only did the seniors seem so grown up to her but the game was so much faster than what she was used to and everything was structured. 

During her inaugural season in high school, Tenore found her way into a couple of half games here and there for the Mustangs. Playing for Norwood, she was more nervous than she had ever been and was trying to visualize everything in her head before it happened. 

 “As the girls were coming down the ice, I started thinking about what could go wrong instead of just thinking about stopping the shot,” Tenore said. “I had to stop that way of thinking because if I didn’t it would go wrong.”

As she got ready to enter her sophomore season, Tenore was notified that the team’s goalie was not coming back, leaving the starting position to her. Once again, she let things get into her head for a moment and then realized that she could do this, and if there was a mistake made, the rest of the team was always very supportive of her. The team made her feel like it wasn’t her fault and this allowed her to play her game on the ice.

“As a three-year starter, she has been able to improve her game each year, leaving her as an integral part of our team,” Head Coach Tim Coskren said. “Last year, she came up with some really big saves for us to keep us in games. She is a hard worker at practice and gives 100% and is always looking or asking how she can get better. When she does make a mistake, she is very critical of herself.”

As she gets ready to participate in her senior season, Tenore is looking to stick to what she has been doing and what works for her. One of the biggest things that she has been doing over the past years is being homeschooled, and although she doesn’t get to intermingle with the other girls at high school, she likes the fact that she can plan her schedule to her liking.

“The thing that is bad about being homeschooled is the fact that I seem to get things (like news) a little slower than the rest of the girls, but overall, I really prefer it,” Tenore said. “They give us a program and you just follow it day by day; I really don’t get to graduate by walking down the aisle – I just get a diploma. It’s ok as I’m not totally attached to the idea of walking anyway.”

Tenore went on to say that she prefers homeschooling as it’s less stressful and she is able to adjust her work schedule as needed; it works, especially during hockey season.