By Caden Hofmann · Link to article here In just under a month, the Professional Women’s Hockey League Detroit hockey team will play the franchise's first-ever game — al…
Link to article here
In just under a month, the Professional Women’s Hockey League Detroit hockey team will play the franchise's first-ever game — although the lack of NCAA opportunities for women's hockey players in Michigan remains a sore point. Even with professional women’s hockey coming to Michigan, it doesn’t exist at the NCAA level for women. There are just 45 NCAA DI women’s teams in the nation compared to 64 men’s teams, although the state of Michigan has no women’s teams.
Michigan State’s DI women’s team plays at the ACHA level, bringing high-level hockey to MSU and playing a full regular season, including playoffs, traveling and practicing regularly. Because it isn't a varsity sport and is instead a registered student organization, the team is entirely student-run under the guidance of a coach. Each member of the team has to pay $3,500 to be part of the roster and has to secure an extra $1,000 in sponsorships as well. With no funding from MSU, travel costs, equipment, and ice time prices add up for players. “We are budgeted around over $100,000 a year to play. So it is a lot of money that we need to either raise or bring in from students,” senior forward Anna Wroblewski said. “We have no support from the school at all, and it really sucks when we, as players and students, want to go to a big school like this and have to pay to play our sport.” The team doesn't have consistent access to Munn Ice Arena and its facilities, nor can it access the home or visitor locker rooms. MSU must share the guest locker room with its opponent. MSU also faces a disadvantage within the ACHA, primarily playing against schools with fully schoolfunded club hockey teams that do not have to compete for facilities and practice time with varsity sports. “We practice three times a week for one hour,” head coach Debra Bolino said. “We are going against teams that get to practice every day, have coaches on salary and have fully funded programs.” MSU's on-ice talent isn't the issue, though. Even with its disadvantages, the team has seen success. MSU sits at 6-2 this year after dropping a hard fought game to Michigan 2-1 on Friday night at Munn Ice Arena.
“We are seen as a top-10 team every year, and still it doesn’t seem to matter; that has no weight here,” junior defenseman Meghan Mcluckie said. “We are just like every other club team, I guess; just because there is no other women’s NCAA team it doesn’t mean we get top priority.”
The path for varsity women’s hockey at MSU is complicated, but not impossible. The main blocker to moving the sport up is finances. Facility upgrades, Title IX requirements and financial backing need to be met to move the team to the NCAA. “We have to get funding; then I think we could make the jump,” Bolino said. “We just need some big names to support it. We also need to get the athletic department settled, the board settled, and we need to have the president on board.” Women’s sports and women’s ice hockey are as big as they have ever been; between media coverage and rising athlete numbers, it is always growing, but the team's ascension to the NCAA level will always be contingent on the money. “With the new PWHL team coming to Detroit, I think media-wise there is a lot more attention for women’s hockey,” McLuckie said. “I think it is possible, but there just needs to be big funding.” MSU continues its season at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 15, against Montana State at home.