Cleary University adds women’s ice hockey as varsity sport - MLive.com

The Cleary University athletic department will be adding a new varsity sport to its offered programs in the fall of 2021.

The Cougars are kickstarting a women’s ice hockey program that will be led by former Central Michigan University head coach Brittany Knopp. The former Finlandia University standout decided to take the role at Cleary because it would allow her to follow her passion for the sport while also offering her players the best situation possible for a student-athlete.

“Hockey is something that I’ve always been used to and it’s something that really just makes me happy in life,” said Knopp. “I wanted to continue being involved with hockey in my career if I could, so when I got out of college, I started picking up coaching here and there and really enjoyed it.

“After that, I started coaching at Central and I absolutely loved it. Cleary reached out to me to see if I would be interested in coaching their new women’s hockey program, so I decided to see what they were willing to offer players if they came to the program. As a former player, the most important thing to me is getting the best for the players that I coach, and I believe Cleary is offering that, which is why I took this opportunity.”

The women’s ice hockey program will not be a pay-to-play sport which was a pivotal selling point for Knopp, as the cost of playing hockey can be particularly expensive to student-athletes who are already paying for their college education and living expenses.

“Cleary made their hockey programs a no-pay policy, which is wonderful because it’s kind of ridiculous to think that college kids can afford to play college hockey,” she said. “It’s an expensive sport to play to begin with on top of tuition and housing for college kids.

“They were willing to cover all of the expenses from traveling, team meals, and gear. You don’t find that at the CCHA level ever, so that was something that really set Cleary aside from all the other schools in my eyes.”

The Cougars will host events at the Hartland Ice House, where Knopp hopes to use her previous experience as the manager of the Mt. Pleasant Ice Arena to her advantage.

“When you know the price of the ice, you really take advantage of it more,” she said. “When I first started coaching, I would explain drills a lot on the ice and spend time talking with my team while we were on the ice. After managing an ice arena, I realize how valuable ice time is, so we will do all of that in the locker room at Cleary. I’m going to use my ice time for practicing only and that’s really helped me into that transition into a new job.

“I think just knowing the basics, knowing the ice, the Zamboni and kind of getting the whole effect of what goes into making ice hockey possible makes you appreciate it more. My time spent as a manager also helped me get a better understanding of the financial side of things and the background information of what everything costs.”

Cleary University currently has 19 varsity sports that are members of the NAIA collegiate conference and are hoping to add women’s ice hockey to that list.

“We were accepted into the ACHA (American Collegiate Hockey Association) Division II field but over the summer, we were contacted by the NAIA,” Knopp said. “We felt that would be a better fit for us because we are an NAIA school in most sports, so we currently have put in an application for that and are just waiting to make sure we are accepted into that league.”

Knopp is hoping to add 12 freshmen players to her program for the upcoming season and build a competitive culture from the get-go.

“I’m looking for players that want to continue their hockey careers while pursuing a career in business because Cleary is a great business school. At the end of the day, my players are going to want to graduate with that degree and I can help them continue their hockey careers at the same time.

“As their coach, my main goal is to assist our players to get better. Making them better players helps make us better coaches in the process, so right off the start, we’re going to create a competitive culture in our program and win some games.”

If all goes according to Knopp’s five-year plan, the women’s ice hockey program at Cleary should see plenty of success.

“My first year, I just want to win some games,” she said. “I’m not too worried about the results, as long as my girls are out there competing hard and just kind of building the team’s identity. Hopefully, the first year, we win some games, then the second year, we’re above .500, and then I’m hoping the third year, we can qualify for nationals. If we can reach all of those goals in the first few years, I’m hoping we can move up to Division 1 by the fifth year.

“Right now, our goal is to be able to practice three times a week, which will allow us to get better in a hurry. We also have a strength and conditioning coach and really good support staff that I think are geared toward giving all of our players the opportunity to be competitive and make them into the best hockey players they can be.”

Cleary University announced in November of 2020 that the winter sports seasons would be suspended until the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services allowed for contact sports to resume.

“COVID has been the biggest obstacle so far,” Knopp said of her start at Cleary. “I had maybe a month of solid recruiting in before everything got shut down in March, so I’ve had to adapt to working online during the quarantine. That’s definitely made this whole process of getting a program started much more difficult.

“The bright side is that Cleary is providing COVID testing for all of their contact sports three times a week, so that allows us to at least skate at the moment, but we’re hoping to be able to conduct normal practices after Feb. 21.

“Right now, the women’s season is suspended until next year, so we will be using this time period as more of a building block for training and recruiting. Hopefully, by the time August rolls around, we won’t have all of these restrictions in place.”

Let's block ads! (Why?)