Even after legal win, State College female hockey players end season still feeling unequal

When a federal judge ruled in December that the State College Area School District had violated Title IX and ordered it include female players on a club ice hockey team, seventh grader Al Brooks was relieved. She was ready to finally get on the ice and eager to practice with teammates.

But with the season recently coming to a close, Al and the 12 other players on the secondary team had no games, no jerseys, no end of year banquet. What felt like a victory in December feels different now to Al.

“I’m a little miffed,” she said last month, sitting on a bench outside the locker room at Pegula Ice Arena, hair still damp from an hourlong practice. “They’re telling me ‘look, now you have this team you wanted but you don’t get all the things that come with the team. You don’t get the games.’”

A yearlong fight

When Al learned in April 2022 that she hadn’t made her middle school’s hockey team, she was devastated. She cried for days — worrying that she hadn’t skated her best or tried her hardest. But when Al learned that none of her female friends, including Quinn Hixson, made the team, she started to feel the entire situation was unfair.

Although 34 students, including four girls, attended initial tryouts in April 2022, the final club team was made of 19 boys and no girls. In the following months, parents of three of those girls, including Al and Quinn, filed a lawsuit against the SCASD Ice Hockey Club, which is a parent-run booster club, and a federal lawsuit against State College Area School District.

“I was just speechless that our family, our hockey family, had let our girls down,” Meg Abplanalp, Quinn’s mom, said. “It was such a letdown.”

In the lawsuit against SCASD, attorney Aaron Brooks — Al’s father — argued that the district was in “clear violation of Title IX,” the 50-year-old law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs or activities that receive federal dollars.

In December, Judge Matthew W. Brann of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania agreed with Brooks and issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the girls to be included on a club team.

Tryouts for that team didn’t take place until late January, prompting Brooks to write to Brann that the district wasted time establishing the team to the detriment of the would-be players.

SCASD spokesperson Chris Rosenblum in January called it a “complex matter with many moving parts,” and assured that the district was doing “everything possible to move through this process.”

Practice started in February, giving the second team an abbreviated season with only four sessions on the ice. Al and Quinn lugged their hockey bags — almost as big as the girls themselves — into the locker room of Pegula for Friday night practices with the second State College Area middle school hockey team.

Quinn said the lack of games, webpage, jerseys and invitation to the end of year banquet feels like a punishment for the second team.

“They already didn’t like us because of a lawsuit,” Quinn said. “And I think they kind of held that grudge even though they lost.”

The district declined to comment for this story, citing ongoing litigation. Rosenblum pointed to previous district statements about the situation.

“We are grounded in equity and inclusion for all, and we do everything we can to ensure all students have opportunities for participation in sports, or any other activity, regardless of gender,” he previously told the CDT.

SCASD Ice Hockey Club President Chrissie Ebeck did not respond to the CDT’s requests for comment.

Still not equal

Although both Al and Quinn said they love being out on the ice, their team missed out on a vital part of the sport this season: games. One scrimmage was held on March 28. They feel the secondary team lost the opportunity to take the skills learned in drills and practice and apply them in a game.

“My kid loves the game of hockey,” Linnet Brooks said about her daughter Al. “My kid loves playing, loves the competition aspect of things, loves to be on a team and have that camaraderie.”

Quinn said she has also faced cyberbullying for her involvement with the lawsuit, with fellow students posting messages online calling the girls “crybabies.” They’ve been told that they just weren’t good enough to play. What hurt most was these messages came from other hockey players, some of who were Quinn’s former teammates from private hockey leagues.

“I spent like, four years on the team with some kids,” she said. “For you to change so quickly and flip so fast, like, what happened?”

Opportunities for women in hockey

Hockey has long had a problem providing adequate opportunities for female players. ESPN found that while there are 62 D1 men’s college hockey programs, there are only 37 D1 women’s programs. The problem is not only at the collegiate level — in 2021 and 2022 the International Ice Hockey Federation canceled the women’s World Juniors tournament, letting the men’s World Juniors continue as planned.

Linnet Brooks said, locally, there are often only two ways girls get rostered on non-private teams — if they are exemplary players or if no cuts are made in tryouts. Providing girls with the opportunity to try out is not enough, she said.

“The opportunity in question here is not the opportunity to try out for a slot, but the opportunity to be on the team and to play,” Brooks said.

There’s also a missed opportunity in developing skills, Abplanapl said.

“Because eighth grade and below is developmental as far as USA Hockey goes. So it’s not about just the chance to try out, it’s the chance to actually grow,” she said.

What has changed in the school district?

Following the federal ruling, the district’s assistant athletic director, Loren Crispell, was appointed to oversee club sports. Previously, the district’s activities advisors oversaw club sports, and the policy change aligns club sports more closely with the athletics department and provides more district oversight of club boards.

The district also hired Philiadelphia-based law firm Fox & Rothschild to conduct an equity audit of all the district’s sports and clubs. With a $250 hourly rate for the district audit, the firm been responsible for the district’s Title IX training in the past.

During the board meeting where Fox & Rothschild’s hire was approved, board member Peter Buck said the firm is “imminently qualified.”

“And given what we’ve been talking about on the board lately, this is a very reasonable expenditure,” he said.

The school board also approved a new policy putting club sports under the board’s purview.

Board president Jackie Huff and Crispell declined to comment for this article, citing the ongoing litigation.

“Unfortunately, I am not able to comment on the second middle school hockey team, or what future oversight will look like at this time,” Crispell wrote in an email to the CDT.

Since the federal suit was filed in August, the district has spent $14,889 on legal fees.

In February, Brann referred SCASD and the parents who filed the lawsuit to mediation, but no resolution has been reached.

Uncertain future

Al and Quinn plan on trying out for the high school’s JV hockey team, but opportunities for female players dwindle as students age. High school hockey allows checking, meaning the game gets much more physical.

Their parents also worry that the district’s process and oversight of IHC hockey clubs is still inequitable.

“It’s really difficult to believe that when Al tries out for hockey next year ... they will have equitable rostering practices and that will have coaches in place that will not discriminate, that they’re adequately trained,” Linnet Brooks said.

Looking back, the season was far from the girls’ original expectations. They knew the second team would be starting almost three-quarters into the season, but they expected both teams to have similar opportunities and resources.

“I got cheated,” Al Brooks said. “We went through all this trouble for (the lawsuits) to still be going on and only get a scrimmage.”

Kyle J. Andrews contributed to this report.