Club sports, IM locked in cold war over Baker Rink

Hobey Baker never would've seen this one coming.

When Baker '14 died in 1918, the men's ice hockey team that he had once starred on was the only organized team at Princeton to play on ice. Now, however, seven different varsity, club and intramural teams share the single sheet of ice in the rink that bears his name. Baker Rink also accomodates public groups for youth hockey programs and clinics. With only a limited amount of ice time available, its scheduling has left some teams feeling shorted and wondering whether there is a more efficient way to divide up time.

For senior Liz Asch, being a member of the club figure skating team means representing the University in the same way a member of a varsity team would. The club figure skating team participates in eastern and national competitions and demands plenty of practice hours of its members.

Asch, however, does not feel the figure skaters are given enough time to practice and blames the problem on the scheduling of ice time. In addition to groups outside the University, figure skaters have to deal with the demands of intramural sports.

"The main problem with ice scheduling for club sports is that intramural [sports] take precedence over club sports, and we lose precious ice time to intramurals," Asch said. "It is endlessly frustrating to have to forfeit practice time to intramurals, especially during the height of our competitive season."

Cristine McCarthy, coordinator of intramural and club sports, disagreed with Asch's claim that intramural sports are given precedence over club teams. "[The varsity and club teams] have first priority because their games are scheduled so far in advance. Then we schedule our stuff around that," McCarthy said.

McCarthy also said that the intramural office does its best to schedule games only once or twice a week and always schedules its games after 9:15 p.m.

"Everyone's going to want what they see as prime time, but we try very hard to have [intramural] games late at night, after the varsity and club teams," she said.

McCarthy also said she works with Jeff Graydon, the rink manager, to ensure that the time scheduled for intramural sports does not encroach on other teams' schedules. Asch agreed with Graydon, saying he "does an absolutely wonderful job accommodating everyone's demands for ice time."

Graydon could not be reached for comment.

Junior Matty Valvano, president of the men's club hockey team, took a more pragmatic approach.

"Baker Rink attracts so many interested parties that its single surface simply can't make everyone happy," he said. "From the University perspective alone there are two very demanding Division I teams, two club hockey teams and club figure skating," in addition to intramurals.

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But Valvano also understands that sacrificing time on the ice is just part of the tradeoff for getting to play in a historic locale such as Baker Rink. "If nothing else, this just enhances the novelty of playing at Baker. Hobey Baker Rink is virtually hockey holy ground. The rink is steeped in a history that other programs would kill for."

Indeed, Hobey Baker himself was a legend in the college hockey community. Even today, the national award for men's hockey player of the year is named after him. While the rink that bears his name is growing old and doesn't boast the three or four separate sheets that new ice rinks have, most of the ice-using community seems to feel it suits their needs as well as it can, and the rest are simply just frustrated with the lack of ice time.