The Toll Gate co-op girls’ hockey team has a lot of new changes to deal with this season, including a new coach and a new division. Fortunately, the Titans have a lot of familiar faces coming back to help with the transition.

Toll Gate is bringing back nearly its entire starting lineup from last season and has a returning class of nine seniors, all with varsity experience. In addition to Toll Gate’s crop of seasoned veterans, the team should benefit from its 24-person roster, the largest in the program’s history.

And the Titans will need every one of them.

For all their numbers, the Titans are lacking in overall experience. Nine of their 24 skaters are first-year players and, outside the team’s top lines, few have any significant ice time at the high school level. At the very least, it is an interesting chemistry experiment.

“We have two different groups right now,” head coach Kevin Chronley said. “We have about a dozen kids who have experience and then we have some kids who are very, very new. But both groups are going to be dependent on each other. The new kids need the older kids to teach them the sport and to help develop teamwork. And the other group, including our nine seniors, must – for their own success – reach out and help make that younger group better.”

That mix will be reflected on the team’s top line, where freshman center Emily Fox is slated to start in between program pillars Laura Henn and Britt Croll. Four-year starters Sydney Collins and Kelsey Imondi make up the Titans’ top defensive tandem and senior Caitlyn Haskins, a founding member of the Toll Gate team, will resume her place in goal. With that crew, the Titans will field one of the most veteran starting units in the state. But it will be the play of the team’s second and third units that determine Toll Gate’s ultimate success this season.

“Haskins is a rock-solid goalie,” Chronley said. “And Imondi and Collins both bring a ‘wow’ factor from a defensive point of view. Then we have a mix of past and future on our first line, with Fox playing alongside Croll and Henn. We have a lot of experience there. But you can’t win a game with one starting unit. Our success will come from turning our new players into necessary links in the chain.”

Chronley, who is taking the program’s reigns in an interim role this winter, will have some help bringing it all together. Coach Julie Peters, who has coached the Titans since the team’s inception, will miss this season while on maternity leave. Chronley, who served as team president, has stepped in to handle coaching duties as well. And he brought reinforcements.

In addition to his own previous coaching experience, Chronley will draw on a small army of assistant coaches and volunteers to help shape this year’s team. Assistants Kelli Jourdain, Ryan Waters, Karen Hawes and Britt Chronley have all played for the University of Rhode Island’s women’s team and each brings a special set of skills to the Titans’ bench.

Jourdain, a goalie, still plays competitively and is expected to help bring Haskins to the next level in net. Waters played defense for URI while Hawes was a standout forward for the Rams. Britt Chronley, another founding member of the Toll Gate program, was a top scorer in her day and brings a special passion for the game.

“They can all contribute in very different ways,” Kevin Chronley said. “They’ve all brought a lot to the table so far and I’m expecting even more. They each know different positions and their knowledge allows us to break into specialized groups on the ice. That helps us from a strategic point of view and I’m hoping that can enhance our scoring and teamwork.”

Parent-volunteers Glenn Haskins, Kevin Fox and Dave Henn will also help share the workload. With the Titans’ increased numbers this season, each coach will be counted on to help supervise different aspects of the team. The large coaching staff will also allow the Titans to work on specific areas with their advanced players, while the younger players can learn the game at a more manageable pace.

Toll Gate will have to contend with the loss of last year’s scoring leader Susie Cavanagh, who joined the Pilgrim boys’ team this winter, but the Titans are bringing back nine of their top-10 scorers from last season. Croll, Henn, Imondi and Collins each ranked among the top-five and should provide an explosive punch for the Titans’ top unit.

Claudia Collins and Megan Donnelly will hold down the team’s second line alongside freshman Casey McCormick while sophomore Jackie Lyman and senior Brittany Hillier will be the first defensemen off the bench. Seniors Brianna Accetturo and Casey Butler will also play important roles for the Titans.

With its starting lineup essentially set in stone, Toll Gate is turning its attention to bolstering its depth quickly, a necessary step for the Titans to be competitive in the division this year. The Rhode Island Interscholastic League consolidated girls’ hockey into just one league this winter, pitting Toll Gate against Division I opponents like Mount St. Charles and Bay View twice, which puts an extra emphasis on the Titans’ learning curve.

“Outside of our starting lineup, things are going to be pretty fluid for us,” Chronley said. “Our second and third lines are similar and we’re going to have to mix those lines to find out who plays well together. Right now it is a game of finding the right chemistry.”

Last Saturday showed that the team might be on to something. The Titans took part in an Injury Fund match-up and, while the game was only an exhibition, Toll Gate skated away with a 3-1 victory. The team will scrimmage Burrillville on Saturday and will host Barrington in the league-opener on Saturday, Dec. 5, at 9:30 p.m. at Warburton Arena.

“We’re hoping for a continuation of what we’ve seen in the last couple weeks of practice,” Chronley said. “We want them to forget about the scoreboard and just focus on getting better every day. Then we can step up. And when you exceed your expectations, your expectations get higher.”