Ahearn excited about first varsity game> UM hockey women host Sacred Heart

Alana Ahearn used to accompany her father when he’d go ice fishing on Sebago Lake.

“I didn’t like ice fishing, but I’d go figure skating on the lake,” said Ahearn.

She has always enjoyed skating but didn’t like hockey until she lived in the same dormitory with several members of the University of Maine men’s hockey team her freshman year.

Standish’s Ahearn, who went to Bonny Eagle High School, got to understand the sport by talking with the Maine players and other friends in her dorm and she decided to try out for the women’s hockey team the following fall.

“My parents bought me my first pair of hockey skates for Easter my freshman year. They also bought me roller blades. It was funny because they usually buy me a shirt or something,” said Ahearn, who has put the skates to good use as a member of the women’s hockey team.

Ahearn and her Maine teammates will make their debut as a varsity program against Sacred Heart (Conn.) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Alfond Arena. Maine had a club program for several years.

Ahearn is a fifth-year senior and admits that her excitement level is at an all-time high.

“I can’t wait. I’ve had trouble sleeping all week,” said Ahearn, whose decision to play hockey prevented her from transferring.

Becoming a varsity program has opened up a new world for the Maine women, including access to areas and equipment reserved for varsity athletes.

“When I first arrived, we had to buy everything, and it cost my family a lot,” said Ahearn.

Ahearn also said some of the players were strapped for cash on road trips “so someone would order a meal and we’d share it.”

The locker room was the tiny media room in the Alfond Arena, so she said they couldn’t have too many players leaning forward to lace up their skates at the same time. There was no bathroom or showers.

Now they have a spacious locker room at the ice level with bathrooms and showers.

After getting dressed, they would have to march down a mat to get to the ice.

“I was nervous walking down the mat,” said Ahearn, who was worried about falling or losing an edge on her skates.

Tape for sticks or fastening socks was scarce. Every broken stick meant the player would have to fork over at least $20 for another one. Laundry was another matter.

“We’d have practice five days a week, so I’d have to wear the same shirt and shorts for two or three days. I didn’t have enough money to do laundry,” chuckled Ahearn.

Now the women receive clean gray shirts and shorts every day to wear under their equipment, which is also being supplied by the school. They only have to buy their skates.

“It’s so much healthier,” said Ahearn, a journalism major-public relations major who does color commentary on Maine men’s games for WMEB-FM.