Three Nations Tournament
Team USA Women, Canada and Finland will be competing in the Three Nations Cup
starting October 20th in preparation for the 1997 Women's World Championship.
The games will take place mostly in and around Ottawa, but on Tuesday October
22nd TUSAW will play TFW at St. Lawrence University's Appleton Arena at 7:30
p.m..  This is a significant tourney as it features the top three teams in
women's international ice hockey.  I don't expect TUSAW to have their top team
together for this event as x-number of players are enrolled in college right
now.  I do expect that coach Ben Smith will continue to tryout a number of
players as he attempts to find the best mix for the USA.
 
Team USA Women
I continue to be impressed with the amount of training Ben Smith is having for
the USA team.  The sessions which give players out of school a chance to
practice and play at a high level also have a few current college students (in
theory Harvard's Allison Mleczko).  It is impressive to see the amount of time
and energy these players are giving to their sport.  Many will be putting
their lives (school, jobs, family) on hold for the next two years as they
prepare for WWC '97 and the Olympics in 1998.  The ECAC Women's League is
going to have the former feeling of Division I Men's hockey during an Olympic
year over the next two seasons as the top players take varying amounts of time
off for national team commitments.  There may not be a big money contracts at
the end of it all for the women, but the sure joy of competing at the highest
level must be an incredible thrill.
 
Team Canada Women
I read that the Canadian women are now receiving $810 a month from Sport
Canada to help fund their full-time training in Calgary.  It sounds like the
Men's World Cup of Hockey, which the USA won, has had an effect on the
thinking of the Canadian coaches.  The Three Nations Cup should tell more on
the overall psyche of TCW.  Vicki Sunohara, who was a dominating player for
Northeastern, is trying out for Team Canada.  She last competed for Canada in
WWC '90.
 
Midwest Alliance
Schedules for Augsburg, Gustavus, Wisconsin-River Falls and Wisconsin-Eau
Claire are now in the Women's Composite (Hockey-L archives: 9697WCMP
SCHEDULE).  The new Minnesota-Wisconsin based league will be lifting off their
season at the start of November.  There will be no league standings for the
Midwest Alliance as there are no set league games.  The play-offs will be
seeded by consensus.
 
Harvard Women honors
During the Harvard Men's Alumni game (and yes Lane MacDonald remains the most
electrifying skater I've ever seen on the Bright ice) I had a chance to look
around the rink.  I noticed that every men's award, rather engraved, painted
or sewn was current and done perfectly.  On the other hand, the women's awards
were all one to three years behind, and often done poorly.  What irritated me
was the Women's Beanpot banner.  The last two wins are jammed on and crooked,
and the 1995 triumph was only added recently, not last season.  On October 1st
the Title IX yearly reports were issued by athletic departments on where they
spend their money in relation to men and women.  Overall Harvard still spends
2 to 1 for the men.  In recruiting it is 4-1, and the women coaches are paid
less.  You can wash some of the overall difference by the cost of putting on
American football and men's ice hockey, and hopefully the ticket money covers
some of that cost.  The women's ice hockey team is getting better funding than
it was a few years ago.  However I am left with the same feeling I had when
this boiled up two years ago.  The Harvard attitude towards women's sports
still has a lot to be desired.  I think UNH's salute to its women's ice hockey
players seems spot on.  It would be nice to see that attitude at Harvard.
 
 
 _____________
/
 good shooting
 hungerf
_____________/
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.