It's seems that Hayley's words fell on deaf ears in Halifax as it was announced, rather abruptly, that Saint Mary's University (SMU) is ending their women's varsity hockey team effective immediately.
The athletic department at SMU was forced to reduce it's budget for next year and decided to drop the $120,000 cost to operate the women's hockey team. Women's hockey at SMU has the third highest operating budget of athletic teams falling behind football and men's hockey.
What really was a shock was how the athletic department handled the cutting of the team. Reported on TSN, coach Lisa Jordan was summoned to the athletic directors office Thursday morning and was told right there that her contract, which expires on March 31, was not going to be renewed and that the women's team was being cut. No warning, no chance for a rally, and no other team on campus was being cut.
That means that the players Coach Jordan had recruited for next season have to find another school to go to, the girls on the team will have to find a new team to play on, or finish at SMU with no hockey to play in. Coach Jordan is also out of a job and was the only full-time women's coach on campus at SMU. She was recently named an assistant coach for Team Canada for the IIHF Women's World Championship in Switzerland.
This news has reached national attention and it begs the question of what were the other options the athletic department looked at before cutting the team? Was this plan A or plan Z for the department?
What is surprising is that according to a blog article written by Seyara Shwetz (defense player on women's team), is that 65% of the student body on SMU's campus is female, while only (now) 40% of the athletics is made up of females. Therefore females pay more money to cover the athletics department budget that is largely made up of male players.
The growth of hockey in Canada in the last year is largely in part to increase in registration by female participants. Male registration for hockey in Canada is actually leaning towards a decline and if it wasn't for the female players, minor hockey registration would have dropped this year in Canada. The growth of the game needs to have support for both genders. Unfortunately, Saint Mary's doesn't seem to agree and was not willing to find alternate sources to help save the women's team. Hopefully the women have not given up the fight as I hear they staged a rally in downtown Halifax last night and are planning try to save their team. They have my support.
You can follow them on Twitter @SMUWomensHockey
It is also important to note for the fellow Americans reading this that Canada does not have a Title IX or similar law.
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