From The Silky Mitten State: University of Michigan regents offer public support for a varsity women's hockey program
“It's time for the University of Michigan to have a varsity team for its women's hockey program,” Denise Ilitch said last Thursday at a meeting of the University of Michigan's board of regents. Ilitch's remarks represented the most significant public support for a cause the U-M community has championed for years—adding a varsity women's hockey program.
“There is currently a broken cycle of elite women’s hockey players leaving our state to play at Wisconsin, Ohio State, or other NCAA DI programs on the East Coast," Ilitch said in laying out the existing demand for a varsity program in the state (which presently has seven Division I men's programs and none for women. "They establish lives and don’t return to Michigan for their careers or to raise families. The elite female hockey players from the state of Michigan are forced out of the state to compete at top level programs elsewhere.”
“I’m trying to put my thoughts into words or complete sentences, because this all happened so fast,” said Jenna Trubiano, the volunteer coach of Michigan's women's club team. “It really happened in a matter of days that I knew something was going to happen, which is great. It shows that we can move swiftly and adapt and be flexible. The energy in that room when the regents and President Ono were talking about women’s ice hockey—I could feel how passionate they were about it, and that’s something that really resonated with me. I think we’ve put ourselves in a really great position for this next step in what I believe is the process for a varsity women’s ice hockey program, so I’m just trying to soak it all in now."
Ilitch's declaration of intention isn't a snap of the fingers that will bring U of M varsity women's hockey tomorrow, but the university has always had the means to make a varsity women's program a reality, and Ilitch's comments (which received support from several other regents) show that such a program now has support from the highest levels of university leadership.
On the most recent episode of The Silky Mitten State, Connor Earegood and I discussed the news. Here's a sample of our conversation:
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