Jenna Trubiano Interview, Pt. II

Coach Tribs returns to talk through some logistics of her program from busing to trainers, players to watch in the coming season, and the peculiar advantage of liberal arts schools in the ACHA

Jenna Trubiano is the head coach of the women’s hockey team.  You are about to read part two of our interview with her (conducted over the phone on Thursday, September 22nd).  If you missed part one, check it out here.  In this portion of the interview, we discuss some of the logistics of her program (from working out at The Rusty Barbell in Ypsi to organizing buses and trainers), players to watch in the coming season, and the peculiar advantage small liberal arts colleges have over massive universities like Michigan when it comes to ACHA hockey.  Trubiano’s team’s season began over the weekend with a draw against Michigan State and defeat to Adrian College.  They will be back in action Saturday when they visit Sault Ste. Marie to take on Lake Superior State.  If you would like to support her team, check out their newly redesigned website michiganwomenshockey.com and use this link to donate to their operation.

Gulo Gulo Hockey: I know logistics have been a bit of a moving target for you all.  Could you tell me more about the logistics around the program, whether it’s practice schedules, access to Yost, you mentioned the bussing situation? 

Jenna Trubiano: We practice three times a week: Monday nights 8:30 to 9:50 PM, Wednesdays 10 to 11:20 PM, Thursdays 9 to 9:50 PM.  We have to pay for ice time with a discounted rate at non-prime time, so either at like six in the morning or after ten o’clock.  We do not have a locker room, so our players carry their gear back and forth.  We have a ride system that our leadership team sets up so that our students don’t have to carry their gear however far at midnight.  For our games this season, somehow we’ve been fortunate to have them all scheduled at Yost.  If we can’t get on at Yost, we try to get on at Canton Ice Arena, which is like our backup.  Not as fun, but we’re very thankful for them and having access to that facility.  In terms of off-ice training, we go to the Rusty Barbell in Ypsilanti, which is probably fifteen minutes away from campus.  That’s because, as of this moment, club sports cannot facilitate a team workout in the three rec facilities on campus, so we decided it was in our best benefit to go off campus to find somewhere we could get the whole team in.  We pay to go there.  We pay for buses, which we typically book through the university.  We’re required to have trainers at our home games, and that’s another thing we have to pay for. [If you follow Coach Tribs on Twitter, you may have noticed that she had to put out a last minute call to arrange a trainer for Saturday’s game against Michigan State in Mt. Clemens.]  Transportation and access to medical staff are the two things to me that should be a no-brainer.  We are going through an organization in Plymouth [for trainers] that has some sort of agreement with club sports this year, but it always changes.  It’s never consistent.  It’s frustrating.  In terms of recruiting, I work full time and am also in grad school at Eastern Michigan in addition to coaching.  I try to get out as often as I can, and I’ve got access to LiveBarn and Hockey TV that I pay for out of my own pocket to see recruits.  It’s hard when other schools have budgets for that.  But I’m just trying to capitalize on the momentum that we have now.

GGH: This is maybe not the most fun topic, but hockey culture stuff was another one I wanted to hit.  It’s obviously relevant with what’s just gone on at Michigan, what’s going on very publicly with Hockey Canada.  What was your reaction watching the Mel Pearson saga play out?

JT: That’s a tough question. Growing up as a female in hockey, which has been a predominantly male sport, I feel like I’ve always built this kind of outer shell and things don’t really surprise me anymore.  I’m playing in a men’s beer league game and somebody says something to me about my gender on the ice. I don't really think twice about it.  With the stuff that’s come out, this stuff has been going on for so long.  I’m glad that people are speaking up and talking about it, because it does need to be talked about.  There’s some really good books like Game Misconduct by Jashvina Shah and Evan Moore.  Great resources for anybody.  Leah Hextall also gave a talk when she was on campus here in June.  I was fortunate that I got to see it in person.  She talks about her experience as a female working in hockey, including some graphic comments that were made to her.  She’s persisting through it, and I think that was great for people to hear, because it’s moving and it’s shocking and, for a lot of people, it’s a wake-up call.

GGH: To take a hard left turn here, I wanted to make sure that we take a moment to talk about the actual season that’s about to happen.  Could you tell me a little bit, maybe players to watch and what you’re looking forward to about the coming season?

JT: I’m super excited.  I’m sure you’ve heard me say that before.  We had twenty players return from our roster last season, including our goaltender Sandrine Ponnath.  She’s phenomenal; she’s a sophomore from California; she’s probably the top goaltender in the nation, so we’re very excited to have her back.  She’s got some new pads too, and she’s super excited.  I’m really excited about our leadership group this season.  Our captain is Miki Rubin; she’s a nursing student, and she’s done a phenomenal job this year with pushing our new athletes, getting them acclimated to the team.  We’ve also got some really good new players.  We’ve got one from Florida.  We’ve got a student from Minnesota, who is also in the architecture program.  We also have a student that has transferred in from an NCAA Division I school.  We typically get a transfer or two every season, which is not uncommon.  We’re super excited to have her on board and have her contribute on the ice.

GGH:  For you, what would a successful season look like this year?

JT: I think our team goal is to make it to Nationals.  We haven’t made the national tournament in quite some time. The last time we made Nationals I was a student on the team.  We’re really trying to crack the top ten and compete against programs that are either varsity status or supported by their university.  We’re still in the old, traditional club sports structure.  At the bigger schools, their teams often aren’t the most supported by the university versus the smaller schools, where their programs are enrollment driven, so they have a full-time coach and access to facilities, they have that ability to recruit talent.  Whereas I have a very specific market of female hockey players that can meet academic requirements to have a shot to get into Michigan.  Every year it’s harder and harder.  My pool is very small to begin with, but I do the best I can.

GGH: So you’re saying that some of these smaller colleges in the ACHA actually have a greater commitment to their programs and infrastructure versus those bigger schools that have already relegated women’s hockey to club status are then pushing that stance further by not supporting the club team?

JT: Yeah, so there is another book.  It’s actually written I think by the Adrian College president called Crisis in Higher Education: a Plan to Save Small Liberal Arts Colleges and America by Jeffrey R. Docking.  I’ve been able to read bits and pieces of it as I need information.  Basically they use ACHA hockey as a way to get students to attend these smaller schools, pay private school tuition, and if they have a twenty-five person roster, they’re getting that much in tuition every year.  It’s interesting because a lot of these smaller schools and NAIA schools have adopted this model because it works.  Adrian has obviously been very successful, but at a large school like Michigan, if my student who wants to play hockey doesn’t get in, they have another student on standby.  There’s so much demand that there’s no reason for them to have to support a structure like this.  The issue for us is that we’re competing against a lot of these schools.  A lot of the schools that are in the top ten for ACHA Division I are schools that didn’t have programs five years ago.  

GGH: As we wrap up here, could you talk a little bit about your longer term vision for this program?  I realize that’s a super vague question, so feel free to take it however you want.

JT: I think realistically the next five years I want to see our program continue to build momentum in the ACHA.  I know when I was a student in 2013, I was like “oh in ten years, Michigan is definitely going to have a varsity program.”  Now, with Ohio State having just won a national championship in a sport that Michigan doesn’t even have a team to compete with, not even just the women’s hockey market.  You’ve got the entire Michigan fan base like “Ohio State just won.  How did Michigan do?”  Now, this is a sport that exists at the NCAA level, and Michigan doesn’t even have a team.  Continuing to build on that, educating people, talking about our program has been really important.  A lot of the next five years will be about educating people on what this can be.  Hopefully it doesn’t take five years, but within five to ten years I hope Michigan has a varsity program.  If it’s not Michigan, it’s going to be somebody else.

GGH: I love framing it that way, because I think my instinct was to lie to myself and pretend Ohio State didn’t just win the national title last year, but I like your angle of mentioning it all the time to incentivize establishing a rivalry.

JT: On my socials, I’ll constantly retweet those Big Ten programs that have women’s programs—Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin does a really great job of supporting women’s athletes in general, Minnesota.  All these schools that made the jump up to varsity in the 90s.  Michigan is a little bit behind, but we’re here, we’re fighting, we’re believing, and we’re trying to chip and grind and claw for every minute of ice time, whatever we can get.

GGH: That feels like a good thought to end things on.  Thank you so much for being so generous with your time, amidst an extremely busy schedule!

JT: Absolutely.  Thank you for having me!

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