A team of University of Florida women’s ice hockey players is creating new opportunities for women in a sport that has had limited visibility in Florida, especially at the collegiate level.
For Marisa Bonilla, the program represents a chance to fill a gap in women’s sports, growing the game in a state where traditionally hockey opportunities have been absent.
She joined the mission after seeing an Instagram post from the UF men’s ice hockey team, gathering interest and catalyzing the start of the program. Shortly after, she became the treasurer, helping with outreach and logistics, and now she serves as president.
As the team continues to expand, Bonilla said she hopes it can garner more attention and grow women’s hockey across the state. She spoke about how it all started, the work that is being done and where she wants to see the program in the future.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Roman: What were the first steps into turning the idea into an actual team? Can you walk me through the behind-the-scenes to get it off the ground?
Bonilla: Yeah, so, it was a lot of work with the men’s team. Again, they helped us find a coach [Kristin Folch] down in Tampa, and a lot of it [the work] last year was me; Alyssa McGovern; and Sarah Pagels was the president our first year, and so she did a lot of stuff for the team, and a lot of it was getting to be an organization with UF. So, talking with the people here, and a lot of outreach, which was something that I was kind of in charge of, just trying to find girls at UF who can play hockey. I sent out tons of emails, Instagram DMs – just anything – trying to find girls who wanted to play hockey, and then, the logistics of actually finding out where we’re going to play, how many games we have, how we have to travel because, obviously, there’s no rink here. A lot of that information came from our coach, came from talking to other women’s presidents of teams that had already existed. So, yeah, there was a lot to figure out, but we got it done.
Roman: Since you were the team’s treasurer and director of outreach in its first year, and now you’re the president, how have you seen the program grow and change since the beginning?
Bonilla: It’s gotten a lot more attention, I would say. We started our Instagram, and we’re now at 1,500 followers – which, to me, is quite a lot of people. I’ve just seen more interest from the girls because last year we only had maybe seven or eight players from UF, and now we have a full roster, which is fantastic. We’re getting outreach from the community, too, saying they want to support. They’re so glad that there’s a team at UF, and so we do feel support from the community, support from students here and everything. And it’s definitely grown a lot in this first year or two years and will continue to, hopefully, as well.
Roman: How have you personally tried to make an impact on the program?
Bonilla: Just off the ice, and logistically, trying to spread the word that there is a team, a women’s team, at UF because we’ve had some struggles getting recognized by the school as a club sport – we’re not on the club sports website. It’s been hard for us to get that sort of recognition. Being able to actually inform new perspective girls – who want to go to UF – that there actually is a hockey team has been a challenge for us, but it’s something that I’ve tried to do, reaching out to youth teams in Florida, keeping up and reaching out to people who have found us through Instagram and stuff like that. As far as on the ice, we just had a very successful year this year as our first year in the conference. For me, that just means playing as hard as I can, scoring goals and supporting my teammates.
Roman: How were the results from this season?
Bonilla: We made it to the semifinals of the playoffs and lost to the University of Tampa – who went on to win the whole thing. So, making the playoffs was just a win to begin with – I think, as a first-year team – and then we won our first game, but unfortunately, fell short in our second game, but it was to a very good team. So, I’m still proud of us.
Roman: As President, what does that look like on a daily basis? What are your roles and responsibilities?
Bonilla: So, right now the season’s over, so not too much. We’re just working on preparations for next year. So, right now, I’m getting exec [executive] applications ready. We’re still – and Charlotte Zahn, our director of outreach, is doing a lot of work trying to – working on getting us to be a club sport, during the season, it’s a lot of talking with the conference in the league, and all the logistics and things that they require, all the questions they ask. It’s also organizing the games in general before scheduling them and then making sure that getting carpool things, hotel things, figured out. But that part, it’s not just me, it’s all of exec [executive], Katie Murray does a lot too, and Sarah. But yeah, it’s a lot; it’s been stressful, but it’s worth it.
Roman: How has the team handled funding and gaining support?
Bonilla: We’ve gotten a lot of support from the community. We’ve gotten our jersey sponsored by a law firm [LeavenLaw] that our coach connected us with, and then we’ve gotten sponsorships from other communities, like dentists or other sorts of things, that have given us a fair amount of funding. We don’t get anything from the school. And, so, we get our players fund a lot, but most of it does come from those sponsorships, from community members.
Roman: What kind of culture are you trying to create within the program?
Bonilla: I think just a work-hard mentality. I think as student athletes at UF, we all have. We’re all very school-focused, but putting on the orange and blue, you want to represent it well. And, so, I think just working hard, hard-working culture that also as teammates, we’re also family, and so just, kind of just a hard-working family culture is what I’m going for.
Roman: What does it mean to you that UF now has its first women’s hockey program?
Bonilla: It means a lot. I think I stopped playing hockey in my teen years, but still a big part of my life and growing up in Minnesota, but I always wanted to come to UF. That was my dream school, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to play hockey here, or at least I thought. So now that there is hockey, it does mean a lot, because now you can imagine those kids who are – who are in high school – they can go to UF, and they can play hockey when it’s something that, [for] people my age, wasn’t an option. So that does mean a lot.
Roman: How do you see this team contributing to the broader growth of women’s sports?
Bonilla: I think just bringing more attention to the fact that women’s hockey exists for one and can be successful. I’ve talked with a lot of people here that they’ve never watched a hockey game in their life. They don’t really know what hockey is. And I think it’s also one of those sports that is very male-dominated. And, so, I think as little girls – and even college students – see that women do play hockey, I think it’s big for the growth of not only the sport of hockey, but also for women’s sports in general.
Roman: What are your goals for the team’s future, and where do you hope the program will be? Let’s say, five years from now.
Bonilla: Five years, I hope that we are one of the top teams in the conference. First of all, we want to become a Club RecSport and be able to represent the University of Florida in a proper way. So that’s step number one, that will hopefully be taken care of in the next year or two. And then, I hope to see just the hype around the team continue to grow. I hope we have girls who are just more and more wanting to come here and play hockey, and then eventually winning College Hockey South Playoffs, going to nationals and just being as successful as we can.