Welcome back to the Power Play, RedHawks fans.  We sat down with Scott Hicks a while back and we just had to give him a 4 minute major penalty so he could blab on and on and on  introduce us to the RedHawks Women’s Club Hockey Team.

The RedHawks had a rough weekend against Michigan State last week. Friday was quite the struggle, as MSU jumped to a 3-0 lead after just 7 minutes of play. The ‘Hawks were able to slow things down and bring it back to 4-4 halfway through the third, but ended up falling 6-4.  Saturday’s contest wasn’t as close, as the ladies were overpowered 4-1 by the defending National Champions.

This weekend provides a great opportunity to catch the Ladies in action as they take on Western Michigan at 9:30 on Friday night and 12:30 on Saturday. If you’re in Oxford for the men’s games, be sure to stick around on Friday night for the Women’s game and catch the second game before you leave for the weekend!

Here’s the second part of our interview with Coach Hicks. If you haven’t read the first half of the interview, click here.

Redskin Warriors (RW): Many of us missed your first couple of series in Oxford against Grand Valley State and Michigan State. What does the rest of the schedule hold? And what can we expect from the Lady RedHawks this season?

Scott Hicks (SH): The rest of the year posses a lot of challenges for our program. Mainly by joining the CCWHA we have increased our competition level. Every week will be a challenge but I see us moving forward and competing every week just like we had this past weekend. We have a few home series left including November 11-12th against Western Michigan and December 2-3 against Northern Michigan. Another highlight is a visit at the end of January from the University of Wisconsin.

I would expect to see exciting hockey from our program this year. We are young and as these freshmen and sophomores get more used to playing the college game they will get more comfortable and we will see increased production. With that, it will open up more chances for our two captains, Jess Wood and Channing Ahbe, who we count on tremendously. Our goals this year are to finish in the top half of the conference and give ourselves a chance to be in the national tournament hunt.

RW: How would you compare the team to the men’s product? Do you have to coach them differently?

SH: You do have to coach women a little differently than Men. Women are tougher than Men, and it poses a challenge at times. I can say I truly have enjoyed coaching women. The response and dedication they provide is more than I have seen from some men’s programs.

RW: The old website for the club team stated you practiced only once a week last year. In your second year, are you practicing more? Do you have more games on the schedule?

SH: Our website is in the process of being refined (many updates are complete – check it out here), but we have increased our ice time. It has more than tripled this year. We practice twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays for an 75 minutes.

In addition, last year we played a 7 game schedule and this year it will be close to a 24 game schedule. We are now members of the Central Collegiate Womens Hockey Association (CCWHA). This will carry a 14 game conference schedule with schools like Michigan, Ohio St., Michigan St., Northern Michigan, Western Michigan, Grand Valley St., and Robert Morris-Chicago. This conference just helps add prestige to our program as it has been the top women’s club conference in the country for some time.

I would also encourage your readers to check out our league website www.ccwha.net as well as www.achahockey.org. The ACHA is the governing body for club hockey and it is a great organization which has nearly 800 total teams that compete under their name at the Men’s and Women’s level. You can see more of our results, schedule, and stats under the Women’s Division I label on the website.

RW: What are the plans for the future of the program? Will we be cheering on a Division I Women’s Ice Hockey team in Oxford soon?

SH: Our plans for the future right now are to really continue our focus of building the foundation we set this year. We want to become a viable national championship contender. We do want to get our name out more, not only on campus but nationwide. We want to continue getting quality girls into our program and keep improving on a daily basis. As for a Varsity program at Miami, I think it would be fantastic. However there are logistical issues with that, first of all being money. But I am hoping that our continued success and growth of our program continues to catch the eye of the school’s administration. Miami is clearly a hockey school and the benefit of a varsity program would be great but I think we are several years off from even that conversation even happening.

Scott,
The Redskin Warriors thank you for your time. You may now leave the penalty box and resume your season. We wish you and your ladies the best of luck and Go RedHawks!!

Friends, Fans and students,
Don’t forget, 9:30 after the men play Michigan on Friday (YOU’LL BE IN THE SAME BUILDING!!!), and again at 12:30 on Saturday afternoon.

If you’re in the Columbus area, the Alumni Chapter will be attending the Miami at OSU game on November 20th in Columbus. Email douglas cut 1 at gmail dot com if you would like to go (no spaces in that email address

Go ‘Hawks!!!