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Julie Sasner (Harvard '88)Head Ice Hockey Coach -- MIT |
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Bio
 What was your experience in youth athletics? Were there opportunities available to you?
The most athletics I played when I was younger, I played mostly pick-up. Thinking about hockey, which became my major sport, I logged more hours on the pond outside my house than I ever did in an arena. But basically Durham, New Hampshire, is a huge hockey town. The University of New Hampshire hockey had one of the very first women's teams, one of the first women's powers in the sport. I think because of the excitement generated by the team there, we had young girls wanting to play hockey. Basically the parent did a lot of the organizing, I know they still do. Even then the parents basically put a schedule together for us. At that point, in the sport of ice hockey the prep schools were leading the way with teams. They were some of the first to form teams, well before high schools. In fact, just now there is beginning to be a sanctioned high school hockey league in New Hampshire. I know Massachusetts has one, Minnesota is absolutely the leader. They have roughly 150 girl's teams in that state. I am a little bit jealous in a good way of those girls in Minnesota. Growing up now, any girl who walks through the doors of her public high schools has a chance to play hockey. As far as Leagues or that sort of things, any Leagues that were formed were sort of put together by the parents below high school age anyway. Even in high school we played for ORYA, Oyster River Youth Association, it's a town, it wasn't sanctioned by the high school.
How did an Ivy League experience affect your athletics pursuits?
All the Ivy schools that do now had programs [when I was looking at schools]. That was one of the many reason I chose to go to Harvard was because I was able to play both hockey and soccer there. From a hockey standpoint, that was chance to practice everyday in an actually arena that had a roof on it. Our practices growing up in Durham were on Monday nights at Jackson's Landing which was an outdoor rink. You know, sometimes when it snows, you loose the puck. Actually basketball was my high school sport, you know basketball was sponsored by the school. I just switched and really started playing hockey full time so to speak, on a daily basis, when I went to college. That was one of the reasons I chose to go to Harvard was because of the opportunities to play there and play against all of the other Ivy League teams. The Ivies were a leader in sponsoring the sport of Ice Hockey in the whole country.
How do you think that national climate has changed and does it vary by region?
Right now at the college level the WCHA is the big league out there that competes head-to-head with the ECAC. It's funny how quickly the Midwest teams became competitive. One of the things they did to make up for their lack of history, some of programs out here have been going for 20-25 years, obviously the Ivy league schools don't give athletic scholarships and some of the other programs out here in the East just weren't putting as much support into the programs at that stage of their development as the WCHA teams did immediately. When I went to begin the program at the University of Wisconsin in 1998, immediately we had 18 scholarships available to us, immediately we had two full time assistant coaches, immediately a training table right after games and right after practices. Every opportunity afforded the men on the men's team was immediately offered to the women on the women's team. There was no sort of well in the first five years we'll do this, the next five years we'll do this, the next five years÷ Some of the schools back in the East, non-Ivy schools that offer athletic scholarships, they still don't offer the full NCAA allowable amount, 18, and they have been in existence 20 years. You look at Ohio State or you look at Duluth or you look at Minnesota, Wisconsin or some of those schools out there, in year one they had 18 scholarships available to them.
I really think the single most important event in women's hockey, to spur the growth and to spur participation of girls and women in the sport, was the 1998 gold medal in Nagano, Japan. I was fortunate enough to be an assistant coach to the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic team and when you are going around the country and playing in different place seeing the excitement in the different regions. I just think I could really see the affects of 1998 then. You talk about the USA Hockey numbers and the growth goes from something like 5,000 women in 1990 to 45,000 women now. I don't have the exact numbers but I know there is a huge difference between 1997 and 2000 and the most significant event was the Olympics. I think the biggest area of growth has been in adult women's hockey too. There are women who didn't have the chance to play who are now bringing their daughters to practice and say hey this is a great sport how do I get to join? Now there are just so many more teams. Obviously colleges have added team and as the colleges add teams and universities, then of course there are so many more youth teams because now moms and dads can see that ok my daughter can get a scholarship for hockey when she goes to college, and not just my son. We saw some of the greatest excitement for the sport in Warroad, Minnesota, which is sort of hockey hot bed, way up Northern Minnesota or in Boise, Idaho, that was another stop along the way where the people just went nuts. Also in San Jose, California, certainly the NHL expanding to different warmer climes that has increased everybody's knowledge about hockey. I really think the 1998 Olympics had a huge affect. Winning the first gold medal ever for women's hockey in the Olympics really helped to drive the participation rates in this country.
 What do you see in the future for women's athletics, will it continue to expand?
Well I think first of all, before we talk about growth, the quality has improved tremendously. I think now the quality is catching up to the growth. That growth was almost exponential after the 1998 Olympics and maybe the quality wasn't there as much. I live in the Boston area so I read The Boston Globe and when you look at the sports shorts for the high school leagues you always read, freshman Susie Smith, eight grader so and so scores a hat trick, ninth grader blah blah blah. It seems like every year I've been following the girls hockey in there and every year for the past five years it's been the eighth graders and the seventh graders on Noble and the ninth grader on Winchester you know? So those ninth graders have to go on become seniors and still the younger players are eclipsing them. The growth in quality that is just pushing through is tremendous. I think you see that now when you compare if you could have the 1998 Nagano team from US team play against the 2002 Salt Lake City team, I'm not really sure it would be a contest, you know? Just the quality has expanded so quickly. Those women that played in 1998 were absolutely the best in the world at that time. I think with the influx of more interest and more competition and greater attention to strength and conditioning and the mental aspect of the game. The increased exposure has pushed the envelope and increased the quality of the sport.
As far as the growth and participation in number you see that leveling of now, you even see, I hate to even mention it, but you even see a couple university programs dropping their teams. Findlay University, they dropped both their men and women's teams in Ohio. That was always such a beacon out there. Ohio State still has a team and obviously they play in the WCHA but it was great for those kids that live out there in Findlay, Ohio, to look right ion their hometown and see a women's college program and now that's gone by the way side. It's always scary when you see that, the good news is you don't see a whole string of other teams dropping as a result. In fact, you see teams adding, huge hockey powers on the men's side like Boston University are just now adding a program to play a varsity program next year. A lot of us are scratching our heads and saying ok it's better late than never. I remember when I was playing at Harvard and we couldn't really have a Beanpot, we did but Boston College and Boston University were club teams at that time. Boston College is now a powerhouse in Hockey East and Boston University is finally joining the fray.
What obstacles still stand to young women who want to participate in athletics?
I would say that's been a great change since I was a kid. I am just flipping your question, I think it so much easier for a junior high or high school female to be an athlete, and not be a tomboy. Back then when you were playing sports it was because you're a tomboy. You sort of get labels placed on you very quickly. Now I think people say hey, it's absolutely normal it's absolutely appropriate; it's absolutely a positive thing for a junior high or high school girl to participate in sports. I think the climate has shifted and now there is a lot of exposure given to the women's soccer team.You see people like Joy Fawcett with her kids running around, you know she's got a couple of girls. I've heard Donna Lopiano, the Women's Sports Foundation Executive Director, say that up until about this point all the girls playing athletics and women playing athletics have been daddy's girls. Because dad was the one that got to play sports and he was the one that taught his daughters who to play. Now you see Joy Fawcett out there and her kids are playing sports and now you've got mommy's little girls playing sports. I think the climate has definitely shifted.
As far as obstacles for those junior high school kids, it's so hard for me to answer that question because I see nothing but opportunities for those kids. Maybe an obstacle specifically in a sport like hockey there are plenty of obstacles just with the cost of ice time and getting to a rink and the cost of buying equipment, the total family involvement that is needed for the kids to play the sport. But as far as obstacles, I would say in this country, America, the biggest obstacle there is too much choice. Thinking about this another obstacle that we've brought upon ourselves is that we've gotten so competitive at such a young age that some kids get left out before they even really get a chance. I've got a friend, my former line mate on the Oyster River Youth Association, who is taking her seven-year-old to summer special skills sessions to make sure he can get on a team. The kid is not even ten and he has to do extra work to make sure he can make the grade. I think an obstacle is that it seems like to get in the route that it takes to be successful, to get on that scholarship track, you've got to start too early and specialize in a sport. I feel so lucky, I look at these women say that are playing say for Harvard right now. Someone told me that in the Spanish language there is way to say jealous but positively. I am so happy but wistfully, wow, that's great they have such great opportunities to travel nationally now and go to Minnesota and play games and play for an NCAA Championship. I never got to play for an NCAA Championship. I have that feeling of isn't that great. I am happy-slash-jealous. But on the flip side of it, I know there are just so many fewer players that are able to play multiple sports. The ones that do, they just give up some many different aspects of college to do that. I feel very lucky that when I was kid growing up in Durham, N.H., I played soccer and I played basketball, and I tried field hockey and I ran track and I did tennis and I played ice hockey and I skied and I tried rowing and I did softball, seriously I played on one team or another all of those sports. I just think it's so much harder for kids growing up these days to have that opportunity. I feel lucky that I was born into that time period where I got to do all of that and then eventually was able to play in the 1990 IHF World Championship women's ice hockey team. I just feel like more and more these kids have to just specialize so early that they don't get the opportunity to try different things and maybe see they have ability at something else.
What has athletics done for young girls that choose to participate?
Oh gees, there are too many to name. You can just go through the official list that the Women's Sports Foundation puts out. Just self-esteem, less teenage pregnancy, all the health benefits that go along with playing sports. I should be able to roll this list right off the tip of my tongue; I can picture the Women's Sports Foundation brochure and why it's good to be an athlete. Not to mention all the just physical benefits of having a level of fitness but just understanding the mind-body connection. I've played team sports my entire life and I don't think it's all that much different in individual sports. But leaning how to problem solve and learning how to deal with a tough loss and how to overcome it. I think learning how to set goals for yourself and seeing the benefits of hard work. That applies to real life whether it's a sport or a musical instrument, or a job or anything. And then dealing with failure, I would say dealing with success and dealing with failure, they can be equally difficult. I just think the benefits, the same benefits for males as they are for females, it's just so wonderful to see things change so that girls have so much opportunity to do this without having to be called a freak or being labeled as one thing or another because it is absolutely normal for a girl or a women to participate in sports.
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