PART TWO: HARD WORK IS ITS OWN REWARD FOR WOMEN’S HOCKEY TEAM

It’s 5 a.m. on a Friday on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. It is quiet: The traffic lights are still blinking, and nearly everyone is still asleep. But the members of the UMass Women’s Hockey team have begun arriving at the ice rink in the campus’s Mullins Center to prepare for their third practice of the week. 

Unlike their male counterparts who play their sport, these women are not scholarship athletes; their team isn’t “varsity” or NCAA-regulated. Their organization is a club. And they are giving it everything they have for the love of the game.

“We come here early,” says senior captain Hayley Kuhn of her 5 a.m. pre-dawn arrival at the rink. “We get our mind set in, and then we have to get dressed and that takes at least a half-hour.”

Although the stereotype of undergraduate student life is an amalgam of parties, hanging out in the dorms, sending text messages, some school, and watching TV, these women couldn’t be further from this. They run their lives with military precision. Like a lot of athletes whose sports aren’t on the radar of mainstream sports coverage, they aren’t going to receive much notice, let alone applause, for their efforts. Unlike a lot of no-name athletes, though, their efforts consume virtually all of their “free” time.

The 28 regular-season games, mostly on weekends, are the tip of the iceberg as far as their commitments. They usually practice Tuesdays at 10 p.m., Thursday and Fridays at 6:20 a.m., plus one “off-ice” training. They also participate in team-building events and fundraising efforts, like a pre-season golf tournament and donation-collecting at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
 

“We get a certain amount of money from the UMass SGA (Student Government Association), then we have to raise the rest of our budget ourselves,” Kuhn says. “We have to fund about 66 percent of our total budget in order for us to have a successful season and to compete with the other teams in our league, most of which receive much more funding and support from their school.” 

 Being a club team means the players do all the work. There is no staff like those for the NCAA teams. All of the fundraising, office work, and record keeping that is done by Athletic Department staff for varsity sports is done by the players of the club teams. The school doesn’t pay for tutors to travel with the team. Unlike some of the major NCAA football and basketball teams, no one is doing their homework and taking their tests for them. So they schedule tightly to fit in the reading, studying and writing they need to do for their classes in the hours between hockey activities.

“I like to plan my week ahead of time,” Kuhn says. “I have four exams this week and three practices and I know when the practices are, so I know when I have to study and when I have to get work done.”

With no promise of a highly paid professional sports career waiting for them after college, what makes these women so dedicated to this sport?  Clearly, it is not the fame, money or adulation. They play most of their games at the practice rink. Even the games in the Mullins Center are not well attended. Chances are most of their peers are not aware that the University has a women’s hockey team.

“Number one is the love of the game,” Kuhn says. “If you don’t love it, you wouldn’t spend all your time doing it. I love that it’s fast-paced, I love to be aggressive, beat some biddies up,” she laughs.

Most of her teammates come from hockey families and have played most of their lives. They all started out playing on boy’s teams, but around once they start checking, usually coinciding with puberty, those teams become all-male. 

Puberty brings on other issues, as well.

“When you get older it gets a little awkward,” says Catherine O'Brien. “My dad used to make me get dressed in the bathroom. I was 14 getting dressed with boys and it wasn’t cool.”
 

Because there were few girls’ ice hockey teams offered in schools, most of them had to find girls’ club teams around age 11. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association only authorized the sport beginning in the 2000-01 season. According to the Boston Globe, there are now 92 schools with girls’ hockey (including prep schools).
 

In addition to loving the game, team members say they like being part of something. 

“UMass is a big school and the team gives us something sort of like a sorority,” sophomore Paige Hackett says. “I couldn’t imagine college without it.”
 

There may not be any professional hockey career waiting for these women, but they believe they are learning plenty of valuable skills for their post college lives.
 

“I’m planning to go to med school, so I think the teamwork is a big thing,” Kuhn says, “and leadership on the team is a big thing just like working in the ER with a big group of people. The time management [skills] will be extremely helpful.”
 

Then she led her team onto the ice.