A coalition of NCAA student-athletes, coaches, and administrators have come together to establish the College Hockey for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative.

The coalition is seeking to create a “positive cultural change across our sport through communication, education, allyship, and advocacy… one shift at a time,” according to their website.

The group of 27 includes representatives from all 11 NCAA Division One conferences. According to WCHA Commissioner Jen Flowers, the birthplace of the organization came out of a collection of conversations.

“Initially it was conversations between commissioner colleagues,” Flowers said, “we talked about what are we, in college hockey, doing to support diversity, equity and inclusion in our sport? What should, or could, we be doing? How do we get something started?”

Those conversations evolved into a need to create a group dedicated to work on systemic issues within the sport of college hockey. 

Responding to Racial Injustice

On May 25th, 2020, the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer sparked national protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Assistant Coach Paul Jerrard from the University of Omaha cited this racial upheaval as a prime factor in joining the initiative.

After “the senseless killing of unarmed Black people, capped off by the George Floyd atrocity and the ensuing riots, I decided to get involved,” he said.

The individual student athletes who are key contributors to the committee all also have their own unique reasons for joining. 

Ayodele Adeniye, 21, is in his first season as a defenseman for the University of Alabama-Huntsville. With his involvement in the committee, he hopes that the group will be able to make a substantial difference in the hockey world. “I hope this group is able to help educate, unify, and expand the game of hockey to communities that don’t really know much about the sport,” Adeniye said. 

Tina Kampa is a defender out of Bemidji State University. Her reasons to join the group go hand-in-hand with the values that the NHL has pushed: hockey is for everyone. “Hockey culture needs to be a place where people from all walks of life feel accepted and valued,” Kampa said. 

Defining and Achieving Success

Flowers’ self-described million-dollar question for the organization is a basic one: what would the College Hockey for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion committee consider a success?

“I think a year from now, we really have a desire to create an initiative or two that could be longstanding,” Flowers said, “success a year from now, for this group and our sport, is that everyone is having the conversation on their own.”

Deciding where to improve requires an understanding of where something currently stands. Jasper Weatherby, a forward for the University of North Dakota, described his college experience in regards to equity. “We have had a lot of conversations in our locker room,” he said, “a lot of people in our locker room that haven’t been aware, you know, haven’t seen [racial injustices] with their own eyes.” 

The College Hockey for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion committee’s first actions as a group was to publish a website: collegehockey4dei.com. The webpage includes their goals and values, along with a plethora of resources to create conversations and educate the hockey community on issues of equity.

They’re Just Getting Started

The organizers of the initiative said they can do more to help the hockey world.

“One thing we have spent the most time talking about is the production of a video,” WCHA Commissioner Flowers said, “and be able to share that within college hockey specifically and hope that it’s in each locker room by the time the season starts next year.”

The group also feels that collaboration will be a key in their future. Flowers discussed that even in the group’s preliminary stages, they have been talking to adjacent organizations. 

“We have had multiple conversations with the organization RISE to bring them in and partner with them,” she said. RISE, which stands for the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality, is a non-profit that looks to increase equity within the world of sports. As recent as last year, the organization worked with USA Hockey on hockey’s issues regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.

A cornerstone of the venture is the phrase, “one shift at a time.” Hockey is a sport where a good shift is a short shift. That means that impact is incremental. The impact from an player can influence the game in a dramatic way once those shifts start to pile onto each other. College Hockey for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is looking to start piling on those shifts.

“We’re going to make change,” Commissioner Flowers said, “there’s no doubt about it.”

John Smark