It takes a lot to play hockey. Before anyone can step foot on the ice, they must have base-layer clothing, skates, shin guards, hockey pants, shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, a helmet, a neck guard, a mouthguard, a practice jersey, a pair of socks and at least one stick. Of course, they will also need a bag to carry all of this gear, stick tape, a water bottle, skate guards and other often-forgotten accessories.
And it doesn’t stop there. To play on a team, a player will also have to cover the costs of ice time with coaches, their team uniform and travel to practices or games. Even if a player buys low-end equipment, the expenses for each season total up to thousands of dollars.
It is already a battle for women to play hockey. Despite the sport growing, it seems to mostly be growing for men and leaving women behind. The recent success of the PWHL is a glimmer of hope for female athletes, but still, the reality is there is rarely a place for women to play. Growing up, odds are that girls will only have access to a “co-ed” team that is just boys with male coaches and male referees and no other girls in sight.
Young girls interested in hockey seldom have a community to call their own. At the collegiate level, this is not the case for schools with varsity women’s hockey such as Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin. But at Michigan, the women’s team is not in the NCAA like its male counterparts — magnifying the inaccessibility of hockey for women at a school where hockey thrives.
It takes hard work and dedication to be a student-athlete. It is difficult to find time to complete assignments while having some commitment – grueling practices, mandatory lifts and demanding travel schedule for games – to hockey five to seven days a week. Now imagine on top of that, you’re working a job to cover the costs associated with your sport.
For athletes on the women’s club hockey team, this is their reality.
Athletes competing for the 29 varsity Michigan teams are granted athletic scholarships to ease the financial burden and focus primarily on their classes and sports. Women’s club hockey players, on the other hand, are not eligible for any of those athletic scholarships.
Despite operating as a club team, the Michigan women’s club hockey team competes against other DI opponents. This is because they are members of the ACHA, rather than the NCAA like Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin are. It’s merely a difference in funding from the University.
Regardless of numerous annual fundraising events, each player still has to chip in to cover the costs of their travel and equipment. For the 2023-2024 season, University President Santa Ono covered the cost of the ice time at Yost Ice Arena, saving the club an estimated $40,000. In a typical season, however, this bill is footed by the team as well. These semesterly dues come out to $1,200 per player or $2,400 per year, which is quite onerous on college students without discretionary income. Already they have limited time to find a job due to their rigorous schedule, working to balance academics and hockey.
“This year we made $18,000 at Maize Raise, and then I think we’re looking to push $10,000 for Giving Blue Day,” junior defenseman Katie German told The Michigan Daily. “And then we do some smaller local fundraisers throughout the year. I’d say our travel comes around almost $65,000.”
Sophomore forward Julia Lindahl added that beyond the $2,400 dues each player must pay annually to cover the difference in expenses despite fundraising throughout the year, there are more ‘hidden fees’.
“There’s a lot of expenses that are small but tend to add up and that you wouldn’t think about as an NCAA athlete,” Lindahl told The Daily. “Once a day or every other day (while traveling) players do have to cover one of their own meals because we don’t do it as a team necessarily.”
The lack of funding does not only affect the players. The club-level coaches don’t earn a livable wage either. Right now the women’s program doesn’t have the funds to pay a coach to focus solely on hockey.
“If we were to add a women’s varsity program, that coach would obviously be full time and it would be their sole focus to ensure the success of that program,” Michigan coach Jenna Trubiano said. “But obviously, coaching our program at the current level isn’t my full-time job. So I have work priorities that come first.”
It would be understandable if Trubiano chose to leave Michigan for a position where her only job would be coaching. While it speaks volumes about Trubiano’s commitment to the program that she once played for, women’s hockey faces an issue of accessibility that extends beyond the players.
With varsity programs in surrounding schools, such as the Wolverines’ rivals No. 1 Ohio State, it seems ridiculous to forfeit NCAA status and choose Michigan where the sport is pay-to-play. But German explains ‘Why Michigan’ and how the program manages to recruit players and continue to grow.
“We talk a lot about academics for our forefront of looking for school, but I think women’s hockey now — because of how competitive we’ve grown to be — is actually pulling girls to come here,” German said.
Yet, strong academics also serves as a downfall for the program. Trubiano explains that because Michigan is academically rigorous, students must excel in the classroom to have a chance to play women’s hockey here. That creates roadblocks in the recruitment process. NCAA programs can snag all of the top talent while they are sophomores or juniors in high school. Trubiano, on the other hand, has no power to flag players to increase their chances of getting into Michigan. Each girl on the squad has to conquer the University-wide 18% acceptance rate.
“Our students have to go through the admissions process,” Trubiano said. “Early option came out at the end of January, and a lot of students were deferred that I didn’t think we’re going to get deferred. So now we’re gonna have to wait until the end of March.”
In the meantime, the would-be future stars for the Wolverines could very well be choosing another school. There is no way to secure players until the admissions office deems them worthy of being a Michigan student.
Varsity sports are more than just a status symbol. It’s a title that guarantees funding, facilities, equipment, transportation stability and the promise that no matter the performance of the team that year, they always have another season ahead of them.
For the Michigan women’s ice hockey team, being stuck at the club-level is costing them — not just monetarily, but also with stress about the season to come, free-time now spent fundraising and the privilege to focus solely on excelling on the ice and in the classroom. The lack of funding poses additional challenges, heightening the inaccessibility of an already inaccessible sport.
Inside their already hefty gear bag — alongside thousands of dollars of equipment — athletes of the Michigan women’s club hockey team must also carry the weight of playing an inaccessible sport on their shoulders.