By Dylan Pichnarcik News Editor By Izabela Gage Editorial Staff The women's ice hockey team has completed its inaugural season without a storage facility at the Loring Arena. The team stored their equipment in the Maple Street athletic facility for most of the season, according to athletic officials. Along with the lack of proper storage space at Loring, the women’s team was required to move four of 10 home games to the New England Sports Center (NESC), according to fsurams.com. Loring Arena, located on Fountain Street in Framingham, is the home ice for both the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams. The rink is managed by the City of Framingham’s department of Parks & Recreation. The men’s hockey team has its own storage room within Loring Arena. The women’s team, on the other hand, does not have any storage space at Loring Arena. Unlike the men’s hockey team, the women’s team must travel to the Maple Street facility every morning before practice, which must then be unlocked by Head Coach Robert Lavin. After the players pick up their equipment, they must then drive to Loring Arena and bring their equipment inside before getting ready to practice. The Maple Street facility is roughly an 8-minute walk off campus and a 5-minute drive from Loring Arena. Prior to the conclusion of the fall athletic season, players on the team were responsible for storing their equipment individually in their residence halls and vehicles, according to Lavin. Athletic Director Thomas Kelley said, due to scheduling conflicts at Loring Arena, the team had to move some of their games to NESC. NESC, located 13.5 miles away from FSU in Marlborough, is made up of eight rinks with eight corresponding locker rooms, according to its website. Lavin said, “When we scheduled the ice, unfortunately, [Loring] had conflicts on those dates, but we had to get ice, and [NESC] was the only place we could get ice. So although it wasn't ideal, we had to make do with what we could do for scheduling purposes. Hopefully this year, Loring Arena will accommodate us, because it's much better playing at our home rink.” Members of the women’s ice hockey team were bused from FSU to NESC for the four games, according to Lavin. He said he told players on the team that the decision to move some home games to NESC was “out of our control.” He added, “When I submitted that schedule, that's what we had. And I think the first year was a challenge for that reason. We had to coordinate with our men's team and other teams, and so we try to offset the schedule so when the men play away, we're home, and when we play home, the men play away. That's the ideal way we would like to do it because it's limited ice. But it worked - we're at the sports center and they took care of us. They gave us ice. It wasn't terrible.” Kelley said now that the team's inaugural season has ended, the athletic department knows “what we're up against, where a lot of the stuff was late on the women's side because we're taking it step by step.” According to Kelley, the men’s season schedule was “done three years in advance, and with the women, we were kind of just throwing the schedule together and trying to find non-conference team games and all that stuff.” He said, “Now that we have one year under our belt in the conference, we kind of know what our non-conference games are going to be and who's out there. … We weren't on time with a lot of this stuff with the women’s program.” Kelley added, “In actuality, we probably should have started as a club team but the conference was kind of in a bind to have us have women’s hockey, and we wanted to be a good colleague. … There's a little bit of a give-and-take there.” According to fsurams.com, the men’s ice hockey team played all eleven of their scheduled home games at Loring Arena. Prior to the start of games, players were told by NESC officials and referees to “move the nets off of the ice after warmups and each period if we wanted the ice cleaned,” according to freshman Anna McGinty, a member of the women’s ice hockey team. Lavin was not aware players were required to move the nets off the ice during games until the second game at NESC. “I don't understand why the referees can't move them. It's a busy rink over there. … But eventually, we heard about it, and then we just had a couple of players in between just move them fast. So it worked, but I wish there was some communication from the rink on that end of it,” Lavin said. He added, “I think for safety reasons, obviously having the players on the ice that have the helmets on in this case, it's a lot easier for them to do it. I couldn't do it or my other coaches, so that would have been too dangerous with our sneakers on and stuff. But it worked.” Lavin said, “I don't think it was anticipated. So I just think we did what we had to do because it was in the middle of a game.” McGinty said, “I know for a fact that I and all of my teammates hate [playing at] NESC, and having to travel by team bus for a home game was more inconvenient than you’d think.” Junior Emma O’Regan, also a member of the women’s ice hockey team, said, “The games at New England Sports Center were a bit difficult because they didn’t really feel like home games. The players, as well as the athletic trainers, needed to bring so much equipment with them.” Freshman Petra Cernicek, another member of the women’s ice hockey team, said, “The team had to host home games at NESC because the men’s team already had their schedule submitted before they knew about the women’s team coming, so although NESC wasn’t the first choice, it was still great to get to play games.” On days the team was scheduled to play at NESC, the team would go to the Maple Street athletic facility to retrieve their equipment. From the Maple Street athletic facility, “We got a bus that picked us up at the locker room and dropped them off and took them back to school. So that worked out that way. They didn't have to drive their cars. That was a good deal,” said Lavin. The team was picked up from the Maple Street athletic facility and bused to NESC, which is approximately a 24-minute drive, using Route 9 West and I-495 North. “It messed with our warmup time, and NESC didn’t feel like a home rink, as we were always in a random locker room just like the opposing team,” said McGinty. All of the men’s ice hockey team’s equipment is stored within their designated storage space at the Loring Arena. Kelley said a storage room or locker room was not budgeted during planning for establishing a women's ice hockey program. Freshman Lila Chamoun, also a member of the women’s ice hockey team, said, “One time, our bus got lost and was late, so we had a shorter off-ice warmup but that's all.” Kelley said, “We're just happy that we got it off the ground and we got to win - it was pretty successful. I thought it was a pretty successful venture.” Lavin said, “It's a new season and a new team, and a lot of things were learned. I think now we know the needs, what we have, and what's anticipated.”
