The team is composed of Rocori, Paynesville, St. John's, Albany, and New London-Spicer schools.
There are five girls from Paynesville Area High School on the team this year. Returning players from last year include: Jenny Habben, a junior; Laurie Barten, a junior; Crystal Songetay, a sophomore; and Jessica Andrie, a sophomore. A new player to hockey this year is Trisha Wendlandt.
"We were hoping that more girls would join, but we're happy that we got Trish to play," said Barten.
The Stars have a young team this year, due to losing seven seniors from last year. There are 14 girls out for hockey this year and 10 are returning players.
The River Lakes Stars had a record of 14-7-2 last season. Their goal for this year is to improve and make it further in the playoffs.
This will be Tom Petrowski's second year as head coach for the Stars. He is a teacher at Rocori Middle School. Petrowski said, "There will be a lot of competition amongst the teams because everyone is around the same skill level. I believe that this will push each player to do their best."
The Stars assistant coach is Jim Caron. He has been the assistant coach for three years. Caron has many years of hockey experience. He's watched, played, and coached the sport for over 20 years. He hopes for a great season.
The girls' first game is Tuesday, Nov. 14, in Paynesville against Fergus Falls at 7 p.m. The Paynesville pep band will be playing during warm-ups.
The Stars will play four home games at the Paynesville Civic Arena this year. The other home games will be played at the River Lakes Arena in Richmond.