Vermont's roster is the most gender diverse in the nation

AUBURN — Half the battle for the University of Vermont roller hockey team is not letting opponents underestimate the Catamounts before the matchup.

A wake-up call from one of the Catamounts' five female players (the most in the nation and half of Vermont's 10-player roster) is a reality check that opponents aren't ready to hit.

Senior Brooke Weatherup plays defense for the Catamounts and will return next year as a graduate assistant. In goal was sophomore Caitlin Smith. On offense, sophomores Emma Brophy and Greta Schutz will look to score along with senior Kaylee Bushweller.

University of Vermont coach Derrick Legger said having a large coed roster is an advantage for the Catamounts because teams tend to underestimate their abilities.

“That's the unfortunate reality of the world we're in. Some teams with all their players think, 'Oh, I can take advantage of that,' and then they get kicked in the butt by Kaylee.” I wake up earlier,” Leger said. “That's great for us, because they're never a weakness in any way, shape, or form. They're a plus for this game, and everyone from inside the locker room to outside the locker room sees them as such. I'm looking at it.

When asked about her physical playing style, Bushweller simply said, “Girls have to do what girls have to do.”

Brophy scored Vermont's only goal in Wednesday's opening game of the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association national championship tournament against Penn State. Penn State has one female player on its roster, Kyla Rogers, a 5-foot-tall defenseman.

“We were on the power play and Nicky (Suffel) went to take a shot and it ended up going to the backdoor and I hit it,” Brophy said. “It's definitely going to take some getting used to (the Nationals') intensity, speed and surface. (UVM) doesn't have the surface, so it's going to take some getting used to.”

Leger said Brophy was one of the captains on this year's team and played ice hockey in college before transferring to Vermont. Leger said Brophy is a “phenomenal” player, “the vocal leader of the team and very fast.”

Being on a co-ed roller hockey team hasn't made much of a difference for Brophy, she said, other than the comfort of having other women in the locker room and bonding.

“It's definitely nice to have girls on your team that you feel comfortable with in the locker room and things like that, but the players on our team are all very inclusive and we're all just friends,” Brophy said. .

She believes that as support for women in sports grows across all disciplines, roller hockey will follow suit.

For Schutz, being on a gender-equal hockey team was a new concept, and he was excited. Schutz and Smith, who grew up in New Hampshire, went to the same high school and played on the same club team. Smith said the strong community of women's and women's hockey teams in Hanover, New Hampshire, allowed her to play together and against each other.

“When I first joined, I didn’t exactly understand that co-ed teams weren’t the norm, so I went to my first preseason tournament and it was just guys everywhere,” Schutz said. “I didn't play with many girls who were good enough to be on the roller hockey team, and I never played with guys in high school either. I was kind of shocked, to be honest.”

Although this is his first season with the UVM roller hockey team, Leger said Schutz is a great addition to the program and a perfect fit for the team culture, especially with his lifelong hockey background.

All five women agreed on the level of play and that physical ability is not gender dependent in roller hockey. Smith, who plays in goal, said with a laugh, “A puck is a puck, a shot to the face is a shot to the face,” regardless of the gender of the person holding the stick.

“It's scary. We have a lot of non-male members on our team. It's great to be like, 'Oh, we're women in the NRHCA,'” Smith said. “I think I'll give it a try. It's really fun regardless of gender. You'll find a good group, and yes it's typical that boys play more aggressively, but Kaylee beats people. right.”

“If you want to play, play. Good luck,” Smith said. “You can be just as bad as any guy out there.”

Leger called Smith “the heart and soul where everything starts, from the back of the room to the blue line and beyond,” expressing her enthusiasm and high spirit, especially during tough games and seasons. The Catamounts are currently 1-17, and Smith often reaches double digits in shots on goal.

Weathernup said he started playing ice hockey at age 14 and played on an all-boys team “as the story goes.”

“When I was a senior in high school, there finally was a women's team in my city, the San Diego Angels, and the coach was actually Alex Morrison, one of the top Roller women's coaches in America,” Weatherup said. “I never really got interested in rollers until I came to Vermont. My friend Victor (Nukovich) was also on the team and I was like, 'I've got to try it out, I've got to come out, it's I was like, “Yeah, yeah.'' It's fun and it's pretty cold compared to the team on the ice,'' Weatherup said.

The San Diego native is currently involved in various efforts to encourage women's participation in roller hockey, and in March competed in the California Winter National Tournament through the Women's Roller Hockey Association. She said this was her first introduction to really seeing what roller hockey could be like with more female players participating.

“I don't know if I've talked to Miranda Remus from Boston (college team) yet, but she's a pretty big name in the roller world,” Weatherup said. “She was helping host a women's roller hockey podcast and was playing in the women's pro (division) in that tournament, which was one division above the division I was in.”

Lemus and Weathernup are the same age, but as her career progresses, Weathernup said she wants to find more female role models to look up to in the sport. Leger said Weatherup is one of the most veteran women on the team and that she is a fundamental and vocal leader on and off the playing surface.

Bushweller said she was encouraged to try roller hockey after seeing a post on UVM's website, but was nervous about being one of the few women.

“It's definitely the best decision I've ever made. I've made a really good group of friends, and it's really great to be able to do that, and I can play indoors and outdoors, and I think it's a lot of fun,” Bushweller said. Ta.

Leger called Buschweller a “driving force” as he continued to push the pace and run with determination. He also said that she is probably one of the most passionate players in roller hockey.

“When I played here many years ago, there were two or three women on the team almost every year,” Leger said. “I think that was a great element of who we are as a team, especially because we have a lot of strong women, which makes it even better to have a lot of these teams here. We were able to surprise them every time we played.'' We put together a competitive team. ”

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