COLUMBUS, Ga. - At 10 p.m. on a Tuesday, walking down the halls of the Columbus Ice Rink, excited conversation and giggles emerged from the women’s locker room. For their last practice of the season, the women on Auburn’s club hockey team are competing against their coaches in a scrimmage.
With a regular season record of 8-6 and finishing 5th place in the College Hockey South Playoffs, the team earned a fun practice to celebrate their accomplishments.
Their performance on the ice represents a group of hardworking women who dominate their sport, but their personality reflects exactly what they are: a small club of women with a passion for the ice.
One women’s hockey player, Abby Lin, began her career at 8 years old after seeing her brother play. But in her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, there were no girls' teams for Lin to join.
"There wasn’t a girls' hockey program in my city ... so I just always grew up playing with the guys. That’s just what I knew," Lin said, chuckling.
When it came time for college decisions, Lin realized she wouldn’t be able to find a Division III women’s team at a school that offered an aerospace engineering major. She knew academics had to come first and found a place she felt would support that.
"I ended up applying to a lot of SEC schools, Big Ten schools, and ended up falling in love with Auburn," Lin said.
But her deep love for hockey wasn’t going to disappear just because she wasn’t on the ice. After arriving at Auburn and seeing how students could start their own organizations and club teams, Lin asked herself, "How hard could it be?"
She quickly learned.
"Actually, a lot harder than it seems."
Funding was of course an immediate consideration, with an allocated portion of funding paying for the ice they play on. As the team has grown and gained traction, they’ve received equipment donations and found other ways to raise the money they need.
“A lot of our funding comes from jersey sales. Our jersey company sets up pop-up stores where we receive all of the profit from jersey sales, and regular fundraisers like benefits,” explained Lin.
For Lin, the most important part of starting the team was also the easiest.
"Finding girls to come and try something new, like hop on the ice, that was not hard at all. And once we got our name out there, we started getting people who had played before or people who had skated before but maybe didn’t play much hockey," Lin said.
The club hockey team attracts women from majors from nursing to engineering and graphic design to hospitality, covering a vast array of campus. Additionally, they come from all parts of the country with players from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Tennessee and much more as well as an international student from Denmark.
Many of the women who have joined the team since it began entered with minimal hockey experience. One player, Vivian Kennell, said she joined the team after seeing it at a Campus Recreation event at the start of her freshman year.
"I had grown up figure skating and played a little bit of hockey in high school. I was eager to be a part of an Auburn team as a way to get involved and to get a good workout in, but little did I know I would meet some of my best friends," Kennell said.
The connection among the women on the team is undeniable. For many of them, it goes far beyond the game and has given them the chance to build deeper relationships with the women around them.
Playing for Auburn’s team in particular means making a bit more sacrifice than the average student. For each practice the team travels nearly an hour away and travels across a time zone. Despite losing time in other areas of their life, they gain a shared experience and bond together.
And after growing up playing with only boys, Lin loved the opportunity to play with women in college.
"With girls, you form connections, you’re in the locker room together—it’s just like girl time, you know. The guys don’t understand that," Lin joked.
Feeling those connections after developing the team, Lin made it her mission to pass that feeling on to younger players joining the team.
"She was the first person I met. Welcoming me to the team, she set me up with gear, gave me rides to practice, introduced me to the girls. She is such a great person, translating to her being the most amazing president and captain for the team," Kennell said.
The impact of a new women’s hockey team has reached far beyond those directly involved. Despite small numbers to start with, the team quickly grew and formed connections with youth in the community.
Coach Jack Rosenhammer began coaching the women’s hockey team after he saw they were starting a team four years ago and reached out to see if they needed help. After growing up in New York and growing up playing hockey himself, Rosenhammer moved to Georgia and opened the pro shop and began to teach children’s hockey lessons.
Rosenhammer said that not only is it important for them to inspire women to join their team, but also to teach them about hockey and what it has to offer.
"Auburn’s a big deal here in this area. It’s a big brand that people can really connect with, and when you have a bunch of six-, seven-, eight-, nine-year-old girls out skating with 18-, 19-, 20-year-old women, they can look up and say, ‘Hey, that can be me in 10 years,’" Rosenhammer said.
While it could be easy to see women like Abby Lin as trailblazers and applaud them for their tenacity, Lin made it clear that she’s not the only one putting women’s teams on the map.
"I’m not the first person who has done this. There’s plenty of other girls out there, like my age, in our league that have done the exact same thing as me, and they deserve all the recognition that I have gotten," Lin said.
She attributed much of her success to her coaches and the nine other women who helped establish the team. Lin consistently redirected any recognition toward herself into encouragement for younger female athletes who might be in a similar position.
"For anybody who wants to start a team, just use your communities, your resources. Ask questions. The hockey community is so helpful. Everybody’s so nice; they all want to help you. Just keep going hard, keep going at it," Lin said.
After her last practice and senior night, when Lin’s jersey was retired, her teammates started preparing for hockey life without their leader. They are inspired to build on her legacy. Caitlin Bermingham will be the next president of the women’s hockey team and said she’ll use what she learned from Lin and the rest of her team.
"I’ve looked up to her and truly admire her leadership and drive. Being able to not only watch her lead this team but also grow this sport, especially for girls in the South, has been incredible," she said.
