When One Of The Best Was Axed

The Canadian Football League was out on the east coast today as Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia hosted the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Argonauts in a game that continues to tease the Maritime community about potentially having their own team one day. There was a full house in the stands to watch the game today, so finding sports fans on the east coast isn't a problem whether it's football, hockey, or any other sport. One has to wonder, after saying that, why the university sports teams in that region don't get more support than what they currently do. We saw the UNB Reds cut their women's hockey program before restoring it a few years ago, but what if I told you that another powerhouse from the AUS women's hockey conference almost saw their demise in 2011?

Based on the logo seen above, the Saint Mary's University Huskies is the focus of this article as the women's hockey program at that school was cut for a short period of time in 2011 as the school attempted to save $120,000 annually. This is the same Huskies program that regularly is at or near the top of the AUS standings and the same Huskies program which often represents the AUS at the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship. In knowing that, how on earth could Saint Mary's University even come up with this cost-saving solution?

In what seems to be a common refrain from school administrators, cutbacks to the athletics department resulted in the loss of the most expensive women's team when it comes to costs. We saw a similar move happen at the University of North Dakota, so it seems that Saint Mary's University may have been the innovators when it comes to narrowing its cuts to one specific team. In fact, a review of the athletics department expenses found that "women's hockey was the school's third priciest varsity team to operate behind men's hockey and football, but the review found a stronger business case for those two programs since they generate more revenue and spectators."

What made this decision in 2011 to cut the program even more inexplicable was that the Huskies had won the 2010-11 AUS Championship before falling in the bronze medal game at the then-named CIS National Women's Hockey Championship. Those results were the best results in the history of the school for the women's hockey program despite having won the AUS three times before.

"It's very disappointing for women's sport in general to see a sport go by the wayside," head coach Lisa Jordan said at the time. "As well as another professional coaching opportunity for a woman to be gone. This certainly chips away at the armour of our sport."

For those that aren't aware, that Lisa Jordan is now Lisa Haley who has been the head coach for the Toronto Metropolitan University women's hockey team - the previously-named Ryerson Rams - since 2011 when her contract wasn't renewed by the Huskies amidst the entire debacle of the women's hockey program being cut. Haley has been a mover and shaker in the women's hockey world, having coached at various levels of the Canadian National team, being named the head coach of the Hungarian national team, and coaching professionally with the PHF's Toronto Six while being named as the Vice-President of Hockey Operations for the league.

In other words, she's kind of a big deal, and she got her start with Saint Mary's University where she posted a record of 118-52-11 in her fourteen years running the program. She was named AUS Coach of the Year twice, CIS Coach of the Year once, and has since been the only head coach in Rams history.

So how was the news delivered? The team reportedly met with school administrators for two hours as they tried to explain the situation, but it seems that the tone of that meeting was anything but sympathetic towards the plight the players faced.

"We were completely blown away, and now we're all left to decide where to play and go to school," captain Kyla Therston told Rachel Brady of The Globe and Mail. "Girls were really angry about how it was told to us. We were asking questions and trying to pose solutions, and we feel like they delivered the news and were emotionless."

Does that sound familiar? North Dakota, Lethbridge, Laurentian, and countless other women's programs have been tossed aside without anyone ever considering what 25-30 players and numerous staff members face once the decision is made. I cannot stress this enough: in delivering this news, schools are taking away the one thing that many players have trained for all their lives, and main reason why that school invited them to attend their classes. Why is this so hard for administrators to understand?

However, as we know, the Saint Mary's Huskies are still playing and thriving in Halifax as they prepare for the 2022-23 season in the AUS. For a decision that was handed down to the team on Friday, March 18, 2011, something extraordinary happened over the weekend as news spread: people showed up and threw their support behind the team to the tune of "hundreds of supporters who showed up at a rally" on March 21 while several donors contacted head coach Lisa Jordan. The public support shown for the team forced University president Colin Dodd to announce that the institution was "pausing" its decision to cut women's hockey.

Look, there shouldn't have to be a rallying cry when it comes to supporting women's sports, let alone women's hockey. In 2020, a Deloitte article stated, "A recent multicountry study found that 66% of people were interested in at least one women's sport, and among sports fans (of whom 49% are female), that figure rises to 84%." Whether it be soccer, basketball, tennis, golf, baseball, or hockey, there's more than just a handful of fans who want to support and watch women's sports.

I say this because the above situation - a university cutting sports programs with women's hockey likely being the first to go - will happen again with governments cutting post-secondary education funding and the costs of everything rising. Athletics departments can offset these costs with donations, but sponsors and fans are pennies from heaven that will keep programs thriving. When legendary programs like the University of Alberta cite "financial reasons" in potentially suspending participation in a season, you know the model has to change as some programs' very existence depends on these extra funds.

The moral of this story is that Saint Mary's University reinstated the very program they were going to cut nine days after making the decision to end the program's existence thanks to an outcry of public support. Since that time, they've seen continued success culminating in multiple AUS championships and U SPORTS National Championship appearances. They've continued to produce incredibly talented players as the likes of Breanne Lanceleve, Kori Cheverie, Kiana Wilkinson, and Ellen Laurence all played for the Huskies. And all of this could have been erased because the Saint Mary's University administrators took the easiest way out in making a five percent budget cut.

The AUS women's conference would have looked a lot different without Saint Mary's University in the mix. After UNB lost their team in 2008, taking another big hit in losing a very good team would have seriously weakened a division that hasn't fared well at the National Championships. Thankfully, the Huskies weren't cut and they've provided some incredible hockey moments for fans since their nine-day hiatus from the conference.

Get out and support your university hockey teams and women's sports in general, folks. For as great as it is watching these athletes dazzle us, it just takes one poorly-informed decision to end it all.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!