The turmoil of conference restructuring in men’s college hockey largely has not affected the women’s game over the past ten years or so. And while operationally, the shuttering of the men’s WCHA this summer didn’t much change things for the WCHA women, it signaled the end of one era of the league and an interesting opportunity for the future.
Established as the Midwest Collegiate Hockey League in 1951, the men’s WCHA was the oldest conference in college hockey. It had operated for 70 years – and for the past 22 years, was separated into men’s and women’s leagues.
Moving forward, the women’s league is carrying on the legacy of the WCHA, no qualifiers needed. The league will be branded as the WCHA, though it will take time to get all the social media handles and website URLs aligned.
“It’s such a bittersweet feeling,” said Commissioner Jen Flowers. “No one wanted the WCHA men’s league to go away. (But) this wasn’t going to be detrimental to us. We could step in and maintain the brand and carry the brand forward and pay homage to what the brand has been for a long time.”
Flowers and the league have the task of balancing the heritage and history of the league as it was with embracing the change, moving forward and really owning the fact that the WCHA is a women’s hockey league now.
“We have an obligation to carry the brand forward,” said Flowers. “ I feel really strongly that we are strong and capable of writing a new chapter of the brand. I think that’s incredibly valuable. Women’s college hockey has the ability to stand on its own. We are fortunate now to have that opportunity to showcase that… I think it’s important – regardless of sport – that people know that women’s sports can handle themselves on their own.”
Flowers acknowledged the need for support from male counterparts, especially in a community as small and tight-knit as college hockey. But there is also power in being able to support the weight of a historic league and know your membership is really strong on their own.
The individual member schools and student athletes are aware of the changes that are happening within the WCHA, but Flowers is proud that there’s been functionally no difference for the teams as they prepare for the new season.
The challenges of this league front office transition would be difficult enough to navigate in any year, but are certainly compounded by happening in the middle of a pandemic. There is no playbook for how a still-new-to-her-job Commissioner handles these two separate, massive, once-in-a-lifetime events happening at the same time. Flowers joked she’s the least experienced third-year leader there is, since she’s not actually been able to run the league in what would be considered normal circumstances.
The chaos of it all has challenged Flowers’ propensity to want to try to plan and control things, but she’s learned to at least try to be more fluid and easy going. At this time last year, there was not yet a viable plan to have a season. The WCHA is heading into its second weekend of games already, so that has to be considered a win. Complications with video streams, live stats and finding out exactly how much college hockey relied on CollegeHockeyStats.com, which shut down this offseason, made for an interesting week one. But those are relatively minor issues that can’t always be worked out before an actual game is played.
“We have two teams. We have four officials. The scoreboard works. The lights are on. The ice is good. The rest of it obviously matters, but we have to keep it all in perspective. Everything else will come together and we’ll keep doing our best,” she said.
Though there are still pandemic issues to contend with, Flowers feels like after last season, the conferences and teams have a handle on how to navigate that. With conference turmoil put to rest, there’s finally a chance for Flowers and the WCHA to look toward the future instead of just trying to survive the past two seasons.
“We’re good. We’re very strong. We’re committed,” she said. “These are young women who are going to make huge impacts on the world in whatever they choose to do, hockey or not or both.
I feel really confident in what we’re doing and where we’re going. That’s a good feeling to have.”
