Every Thursday, Kaja Wold watches her classmates file out of her 10:40 p.m. block class. While they head home for bed, she picks up her large equipment bag and heads to Fort Dupont for an 11 p.m. hockey practice.
Wold, a graduate student from Norway who just started playing hockey this year, quickly fell into step with the AU women’s club hockey team after emailing head coach Bryan Benenati over the summer. She said she showed up for the first practice with no equipment and no experience, but the coaches set her up with proper gear and helped her learn the game. She recently notched her first collegiate goal in a game against University of Indiana but said the referee retracted the goal after a questionable call. Wold’s teammates praise her work ethic and commend her for adapting to the sport so quickly.
“She definitely works really hard,” College of Arts and Sciences graduate student Kaitlin Pericak said. “I think the one thing that is really tough is that hockey is so fast-paced that … you can get really confused and, like, caught up with offsides and where you need to be positioned.”
Wold agrees that learning the new positions and rules of U.S. hockey adds an extra challenge to the game, but her experience playing bandy, a similar sport, in Norway helped her adjust. She describes bandy as field hockey on ice but said she enjoys hockey because of the rink size and the increased interaction among players during the game.
“The biggest difference compared to bandy, no matter what position I play, I’m much more involved because the rink is so much smaller, and everyone is so much more involved in the game than in bandy,” Wold said.
Over half a dozen players attend practice each week, according to Wold, and Benenati said the athletes work well together, regardless of their varying levels of experience.
“Our scoresheets often show freshman and juniors working with AU law students and even alum, with backgrounds in hockey varying from 12 years of experience to 12 months,” Benenati said.
Both Wold and Pericak balance their commitments to the team with graduate work at AU, and Pericak said that club hockey provides her with the opportunity to stay competitive while still pursuing her research in sociology.
“With Bryan, he’s really awesome about letting us [put] school first [and] other activities first, but we want to be serious about hockey and work really hard,” Pericak said. Wold agrees that the club hockey structure allows players to pursue other interest while also contributing to the team.
“It’s very kind of up to you to how much you are able to put into it, although it is a team,” Wold said. “You should go to as much as possible, but some people have jobs so they can’t because our practices are late at night. For the people who have a full time job and have to be up at 7 in the morning, it’s hard to get back and be all pumped up after practice at like 1 a.m.”
While the late practices present a challenge for some players, junior Caitlyn Jasberg said she appreciates the support from her team’s rink at Fort Dupont because the late practice time allows the group to meet together and play for an affordable price.
“They give us those really late practice times, but they could shut us out and not have those available, but they leave them open and they’re cheaper,” Jasberg said.
Jasberg, along with junior Samantha Erne helped lead a fundraising effort to support the team, according to Benenati, and he credits them with the revival of AU’s hockey club.
“While AU won the Spikes Cup in 2007 and marched in the Cherry Blossom parade as D.C.’s first, women’s hockey champs, we’ve since lost a lot of players and had trouble with finances,” Benenati said in an email.
Through support from alumni and donations from fans across the country, the team has raised $2,440 and looks to grow its roster with the hopes of winning its division at the end of the season. AU competes at the Division II level, a category determined by the number of new players on the team.
Benenati serves as the president of the Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference, the conference in which AU competes, and he has helped lead the organization since it started in 2002. Eleven additional teams have joined the DVCHC since Benenati began, and a second division was added to accommodate the teams and help create evenly-matched games, according to the DVCHC website.
On Nov. 14, the Eagles took the ice against the University of Maryland in College Park for the first local game of the season but fell to the Terps 7-0. Despite the loss, Benenati said he felt proud of his players for their heart and character on the ice, and he praised them for finishing the game without a single penalty. The University of Maryland plays at the Division I level, and Benenati said the challenge will prepare the Eagles for later games scheduled over the winter.
Jill Carrie, a Georgetown graduate, assistant AU coach and vice president of the Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference, said before the game that she encourages all students to consider playing ice hockey, even those who may have never touched a stick before.
“You don’t have to have experience,” Carrie said. “We welcome all players.”
In an effort to engage with the community and promote women’s hockey, the AU women’s team joined the University of Maryland club to volunteer at a “Learn to Skate” clinic in College Park, according to Erne. She said the event helped bond the two teams together while also generating interest in the sport in the local area.
Many players, including Jasberg said they hope events like the clinic and travel trips will bring the team closer together and help the eagles progress toward their goal of conquering the division.
“[I’m excited about] everyone bonding together so we start playing more as a team,” Jasberg said.
sscovel@theeagleonline.com
