As National Girls and Women in Sports Day is recognized today, the year 2024 brings a whole new meaning to the occasion.
The inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League has shown exactly how much growth the sport has made, allowing women to make hockey their careers. Within recent decades, the opportunities available for women and girls in hockey have changed tremendously.
Women from all over the world have begun playing hockey more than ever, and the sport has also been growing right here in Columbus along the same lines.
For someone like successful Ohio State women’s hockey head coach Nadine Muzerall, the hockey scene growing up was a whole different beast, even being from Canada.
“There was no girls hockey where I grew up because I was born in 1978,” she said. “So, I grew up in the ‘80s, and women's and girls' hockey wasn't that big yet. So, I played with all the boys. I played boys hockey until I was about 12, and then I transferred over to the girls.”
This is vastly different from her experience here in Columbus with Ohio State. We are now seeing women playing for powerhouse teams, fighting for the national championship year in and year out before heading into the professional ranks.
Muzerall (pictured above) is in her eighth season coaching at OSU, creating an internationally recognized program that is again ranked No. 1 in college hockey with a 24-2-0 record. She led the school to its first-ever national championship in 2022 and has been named the WCHA conference coach of the year four times.
Muzerall played hockey at the University of Minnesota, and she still leads the program for all-time goals scored with 139 and graduated as the career points leader for Minnesota.
“You don't think like young girls would now, where they have an opportunity to play post collegiate and get paid and play in front of thousands and thousands of fans,” she said. “You just always thought, ‘I'm going to be the first woman and I'm going to be the first woman in the Olympics.’
“You know, like that was the only thing you could dream of because there weren't opportunities or a thought that there would be a league for professional women. But there would be an Olympics, you know? So, these young girls like my daughter's age, who is 9, have now a dream and an aspiration to obtain what they dream up.”
Having role models in the sport that can have a similar perspective is so important for the burgeoning girls’ hockey players of the world and in Central Ohio.
As such, Muzerall reflects on the impact female coaches have had on her success as a hockey player, and even now as a coach. We are now seeing more women taking on important roles in hockey franchises, whether that be professionally or at the collegiate level, and this will ultimately continue to trickle down to the youth levels.
“I think I was about almost 17 when I had a first female head coach, and then I had a college coach, of course, that was a woman named Laura Halldorson, who started Minnesota and won three titles in a very short span of time,” Muzerall said. “And she still comes to all my games, and I always lean on her as a role model, you know? So those are two very inspiring women in my life for coaching."
The Future Role Models
With the recent success of the OSU women's team at the top of the pyramid, the future for girls playing hockey in Columbus is brighter than ever.
In her third year coaching at Ohio State alongside Muzerall, assistant coach Kelsey Cline has helped develop a squad of superstars, including eight players who have moved on to the PWHL in its inaugural season. To Cline, the differences in women's hockey now versus when she played in college for the University of Minnesota are clear.
“We always have young girls at our games and are very connected to our team,” Cline said. "It always takes time, but obviously those steps are being taken in this area to continue to grow and develop the players that are here and allow them opportunities here in Columbus to stay and play."
This can be seen in Columbus native Zoe Douglass, who learned how to play hockey right here and has seen the sport changing before her own eyes. When she started with the Columbus Ice Hockey Club, the now 19-year-old was one of the only girls on the ice; now, she sees more girls when she helps coach the club that introduced her to the sport.