Newport This Week

Former Women’s Pro Goalie Comes Home to Coach at Salve Regina



Erika Silva Adams, Erika Silva, Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Salve, Salve Regina, Salve Regina University, Seahawks, Northeastern, Northeastern University, ice hockey, college ice hockey, women's ice hockey, all american, David Lun, BU, Boston University, Brampton Thunder, Providence Country Day School,Throughout a hockey career spent defending the net, Middletown native Erika Silva Adams has had no shortage of stopping goals, while achieving her own.

 

After traveling the world with her husband, Greg, Silva Adams, a former first team All-American and professional goaltender, has returned to the East Bay to assist the Salve Regina University women’s ice hockey team alongside head coach David Lun.

 

“If you can in any way help to shape these athletes, make their career easier, enhance any decision they make or give them insight, that’s where I feel like I can really have an impact at this point in my life,” said Silva Adams, who lives in Portsmouth with her husband and two young children.

 

As a coach, she stresses experience and creativity. She frequently draws upon her own successes and failures on the ice, and keeps things fresh by including games in training and bouncing ideas around her network of former players, fellow coaches and others she’s met throughout her career.

 

She favors the “sandwich” approach when instructing, which means telling players what they are doing well, sprinkling in some constructive criticism and finally ending on a positive note. The method, she says, results in genuine development because players are more apt to learn and improve when they know their game is being watched and recognized.

 

Prior to taking up the position with the Seahawks, Silva Adams enjoyed a long and rewarding career on and off the ice that included national distinctions, playing professionally, founding women’s ice hockey programs and more. It all started at age 3 when she learned to skate at Portsmouth Abbey’s Ice Rink.

 

“My parents could not get me off the ice once I started skating,” said Silva Adams. “I truly loved it.”

“I think you would find similar answers when you speak to a lot of hockey players who have played the game for a long time,” she said. “When you get on the ice, I do think that is a bit of an escape. There’s no feeling like skating, just the ability to escape and feel almost free. In some sense, that differentiates you from other athletes. A lot of people can catch a ball, a lot of people can run laps, a lot of people can swing a tennis racket, but not everybody can be a proficient skater.”

 

Throughout her childhood, Silva Adams played a number of sports that would later influence her career in net, including tennis, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball and gymnastics. She enjoyed hockey alongside her brother, Jason, as a defenseman in Newport’s Youth Hockey League until age 11, when by chance her team needed a goalie. Luckily, Silva Adams had experience in the role, as Jason had frequently asked her to help refine his own game by defending a tipped-over laundry basket while he practiced his slapshots, and she raised her hand to volunteer.

 

“I thought it was the coolest position,” she said. “Mind you, my father was probably yelling from the stands for me to put my hand down. But I wanted to try it. My brother was so excited, because now he had a true goalie to practice against.”

 

Silva Adams found her calling between the pipes. She began working out and power skating for two hours with friends every Sunday, and got a personal trainer at age 12. Newport’s youth hockey program was not separated by gender, so Silva Adams often found herself blocking shots from stronger, older male opponents during games and practices.

 

“As a female playing in a male sport, you don’t get to have a day off,” she said. “And as a goalie, you don’t get to come off the ice, you don’t get to hide on the bench if you make a mistake. All your mistakes go up on the scoreboard.”

 

The trend continued into her high school career, when she was recruited by Providence Country Day School to play goalie on the boys team.

 

“There were challenging moments and trying times being a trailblazer as the only female on a boys hockey team,” she said. “But my family was always there to support me and push me on.”

 

Despite the hardship, Silva Adams was ultimately twice inducted into the PCD Hall of Fame. The first recognition came in 2008 for her individual athletic achievement, and the second time this year for her role as captain on the girls soccer team, which won a championship in 1995.

“I’m very grateful to PCD for that recognition,” she said. “It meant a lot to me that the accomplishments there were noticed.”

 

The skills she accrued across multiple sports helped her as a goalie. She gained agility from soccer and tennis and hand-eye coordination from timing pitches in baseball, while gymnastics provided the flexibility needed to block shots.

 

She graduated from PCD in 1997 and was recruited to play goaltender for the Northeastern women’s team, the first time she would be sharing the ice with females since taking up the sport. She excelled with the Huskies, finishing her collegiate career holding 11 different school goaltending records, six of which are still intact today, and was selected as a first team All-American her senior year.

 

In 98 games career games at Northeastern, she recorded a 1.89 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage, with 61 wins and 20 shutouts.

 

“I think it’s hard to know what you’re doing when you’re achieving something,” she said. “I was fortunate enough to have parents who understood what I was doing, were able to have insight and kind of walk me through what was happening. You don’t get to pick your parents, so I’m very, very fortunate and they’re such huge supporters. I wouldn’t be where I am without them.”

 

Upon graduating from NU in 2001, Silva Adams attended the 2002 Olympic tryouts for the U.S. women’s team, held in Lake Placid, New York, and was one of four goalies competing for three slots. Ultimately, she was cut.

 

“It was disappointing, but overall, I’m grateful for getting the opportunity and to have been recognized as one of the top four goalies in the country,” she said.

 

Silva Adams went on to play professionally in Canada’s National Women’s Hockey League, where she was the Brampton (Ontario) Thunder’s goalie from 2002 to 2004. There, the pressure to perform reached a new level.

 

“If it requires you to make 47 saves and you only make 46, you better make 47 the next day because you’re already a goal behind,” she said.

 

In 2005, Silva Adams returned to the U.S. and took up coaching, helping create Boston University’s women’s program alongside head coach Brian Durocher and fellow assistant coach Kerstin Matthews. She departed BU after three seasons to accompany her husband, a foreign area officer in the Navy, around the world, traveling to Hawaii, Singapore, Indonesia and Italy. She came home to the East Bay last year, enjoying time as a wife and mom and assisting the Seahawks on the ice.

 

“I enjoy coaching a lot,” she said. “I enjoy helping the women out.”

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