Meghan Craig understands if her teammates have been stressed out by the effects and restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic, but her sports-related challenges were well underway when the 2020 spring season was canceled. After a December 2019 foot surgery and extended rehab, the Mattapoisett native was just happy by the end of 2020 to be back playing ice hockey.
An 18-year-old senior goaltender, Craig restarted her career with her Bridgewater-based junior team and was most recently between the pipes of the Old Rochester Regional coop girls hockey team.
“It was nice to get back because I’ve been playing with [the Bandits] for a while, too, so everyone knows each other. It’s a very strong connection there. Everyone was supportive in helping me get back,” said Craig, who got some coaching from former ORR goalie Jake DeMoranville and coach Steve Molind, whose daughter also plays on the Bandits’ Tier I U19 team. “Everything felt normal to me. I did a lot of physical therapy, which helped a lot, and (I was) taking it slow getting into it. But once I started again, if I’m playing a game, I don’t think about it; I just do what I have to do until I’m making the save.”
At 5-foot-4, Craig isn’t the kind of goalie who can just look so big in the net that shooters try too hard to find holes and miss the target altogether. She has to be precise with her right stick, left glove, and the positioning of both skates. Around the seventh grade, things got complicated for Craig, who was born with an extra bone in both of her feet, causing varying levels of discomfort.
“During my [2019-20] club season, I partially tore it and had to have it taken out,” recalled Craig, pointing to her left foot. “They both hurt, and then this one hurt more, so I planned to get it taken out. And then, after we scheduled the surgery, it was detaching from where it was. After they went in, they realized parts of the bone had kind of chipped off in my foot, and they had to take all that out.”
Craig first tried to address the issue with physical therapy at the onset of problems around the time she was in seventh grade. “They talked about the surgery back then; I just didn’t feel like it was necessary. I didn’t want to do it then, but now I realize that it was very beneficial,” she explained.
The surgery canceled her 2019-20 participation in ORR girls hockey, which fortunately still had all-star goalie Megan Nolan. Despite being out of the lineup, Craig attended the Bulldogs’ games and even practices and remained part of the picture as ORR took over the hosting duties of the coop program.
Physical therapy began in February 2020, but the March shutdown across the state canceled that schedule. “And then I just kept on doing everything on my own,” said Craig, who would also miss out on her spring lacrosse season. She is not the goalie in lacrosse or field hockey, but both sports are still possible in her senior year, as field hockey falls under the MIAA’s Fall II season between winter and spring sports.
Craig’s homework paid off, though, later in the spring when she got back on the ice with the Bandits under the watchful eye of her father, Dan Craig, who coaches the Tier I, U19 team.
“I took it, like, very easy on the ice, but once I started skating, it felt normal again,” Meghan said. “It wasn’t that bad getting back on the ice. I do notice a little bit of pain on it, like after skating, but it’s nothing like [before]. I just ice it.”
Playing for the Bandits paved the way for Craig’s reunion with the Bulldogs as their starting goalie for the 2021 season. The results haven’t been all that they hoped for, mostly ties with two defeats, leaving ORR looking for its first win of 2021 heading into Wednesday’s season-capping contest against Bishop Stang.
“We’re lucky we got to play,” said ORR head coach Ted Drew. “We’re the only girls [hockey] program in this area that hasn’t had to shut down, so we lucked out. But the girls are playing hard, they’re all having a lot of fun. They’ve been grinding it out.”
The Bulldogs, whose only losses had come against an outstanding Sandwich squad, had scheduled 10 games but lost two that were canceled against Falmouth. With the Cape-based schools scrambling to play their make-up games, ORR is left no window to reschedule.
The team’s unpredictable grind recently included a rough ride to Nantucket. The Bulldogs boarded the 11:55 am fast ferry from Hyannis, in which they were isolated from the rest of the passengers. They played their game at 2:00 pm, enjoyed some pizza, jumped onto the bus to connect to the returning ferry, and everyone was home by 6:30 pm.
“I think we’re working really well together, like talking. Most of us have known everyone for a while now, so I think we have a good bond,” said Meghan, who, along with captain Carly Drew is among eight seniors who will graduate off the ORR team.
Carly Drew will play college hockey, and the same is expected for Meghan’s sister, Erin Craig, who is playing hockey this winter at Lawrence Academy. Meghan’s older sister, Danielle Craig, skated at Tabor Academy and plays club hockey at UMass Amherst. If the family ties sound familiar, they should. Meghan’s cousin, Taylor, the daughter of 1980 Olympic gold medalist Jim Craig, also played at Tabor before going on to play Division I college hockey.
What Meghan does with the sport she loves is up in the air for now.
“I don’t know if I will be playing hockey in college…. I want to study business, probably down south,” she said. “I could, but if I wanted to play (competitive hockey) in the future, I’d have to get surgery done on my right foot. I still have the (extra) bone in that foot, and it’s caused a lot of problems and stuff, so I don’t know if it’s worth continuing with the injuries…. I actually notice a little bit more pain since the surgery in my left than in the right one.”
While college hockey is off the table without a second surgery, Meghan can get along in life and maybe enjoy some adult hockey between the pipes, accepting relatively minor discomfort when she hits certain thresholds of use.
“Hopefully, it doesn’t affect me as much when I’m just living my daily life,” she said. “I do notice sometimes that if I walk a lot, it could hurt, but usually it’s not that bad.”
By Mick Colageo
