Women’s ice hockey: The sport Ohio State should care about

Ohio State is known for its exceptional athletics. With football season winding down, many students are getting amped for winter sports such as basketball and ice hockey.

Quick question for you: when I said basketball and ice hockey, did you think about the men’s teams or the women’s teams?

Ohio State boasts 19 women’s sports teams, with eight teams having their main seasons during the winter months. Women’s ice hockey, for example, is in the thick of their season by the time December rolls around.

Maggie Rothgery transferred to Ohio State her junior year and is currently a senior forward on the women’s ice hockey team. Maggie is following in the footsteps of her father, Don Rothgery, who also played ice hockey when he was a student at Ohio State in the 80s.

Maggie (Right) posing with her teammates

I had the chance to sit down with Maggie and talk about what it’s like to be a Division I athlete at OSU, as well as some of the most rewarding and difficult aspects of playing collegiate women’s ice hockey.

Let’s start by describing what a typical day is like for you.

“Usually I wake up at seven or eight, depending on the day. I go to class, I either have one or two classes. Then we practice around three, but we have to run beforehand. Sometimes we can go out and shoot or whatever…so we practice for an hour to two hours, and then after that we either run again, and stick handle, do some skills, and then every other day we workout…and then they feed us after that.” *laughs*

Sounds like a lot of cardio. Do you guys also do a lot of strength building?

“This is actually the most cardio I’ve done on a hockey team. My coach was a former four-time Olympian, so she knows what she’s doing. She has us in really good shape. We run before practice every single day and, like I said, sometimes after practice, but not so much more since we’re in the thick of the season. Along with that, in the weight room we lift a lot of weights. It’s a lot, but they keep us real strong.”

Overall, what would you say is the hardest part about being a DI athlete at Ohio State?

“It’s really hard physically, but also mentally, trying to balance school and exams. It’s a pretty hard time in our season right now and finals are coming up, so it’s kind of hard to balance around four hours every day at the rink, sometimes more, and then going home at night and studying, because that’s the only time we can study.”

What has been the most rewarding experience for you while playing for OSU?

“We have this thing after games called Skate with the Buckeyes, where the little kids can come and skate with us. It’s really rewarding to see them really try hard to skate. We help them a little bit and they look up to us, which is really cool.”

Women’s hockey tends to get overshadowed by men’s basketball and men’s hockey. Why should students and other members of the OSU community care about women’s hockey?

“I think comparatively to those sports we work really hard, and not to take it away that they don’t work really hard, but we’re just a grinding team, and you can see it on the ice, how hard we work. Compared to men’s hockey, I know everyone gets really excited about the hitting and stuff, but women’s hockey is way more finesse. It’s cool to see how smooth everything is on the ice. It’s a cool experience.”

Last question, who or what inspires you?

“That’s a hard one… I’d say my dad inspires me because he kind of went through the same thing as me. Growing up, I started [to play hockey] because I wanted to be like him.”

Photos courtesy of Maggie Rothgery’s Facebook profile