The impending opening of the new MSU Student Recreation and Wellness Center has the current generation of MSU Underwater Hockey Club members excited for the future.
The Student Recreation and Wellness Center natatorium is expected to be completed by August 2026 and will give club members access to a 50-meter pool. Not every pool can host underwater hockey games, as the surface of the bottom needs to work with the weighted puck.
The excitement for the new facility was initially halted for club members after they were told that the new pool would not allow the specialized puck to properly glide across the bottom. And that could put the future of the rebuilding club in jeopardy. However, after future discussions, club leadership was ensured that the new pool would be suitable for underwater hockey.
“So we were kind of freaking out because, you know, we were like, ‘Well are we not going to have a club anymore because we don't have a pool?’” MSU Underwater Hockey Club Vice President Sydney Wasser said. “So that was kind of a little scary for a while. But then over time we figured out that, ‘OK, actually, this pool bottom will work,’ a couple months later.”
The current pool situation at MSU’s IM facilities has not been ideal for the club, between playing in a pool that is smaller than the regulation size and having to practice with more members than can fit comfortably in the pool at IM Circle.
“The IM Circle pool, as you know, is like pretty small and it's not really fit for 50 people, so that was really, that was like a challenge for us to get through,” Wasser said. “And we were kind of worried that we did lose some people just because our practices were shorter at the beginning of the year.”
When Wasser, a junior studying Integrative Biology, joined the club a few years back, there were about six members fighting to keep it alive, after the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the underwater hockey club has 50 registered members in the IM system and has seen a steady increase in membership over the past three years. The idea of having a new pool for the club to fit more people is one that is exciting for the current group.
“This new pool could really fit like a large number of people,” Wasser said. “So we're really excited about that, we think it could help our club a lot.”
The group has been focusing on establishing itself as one of the best up and coming underwater hockey clubs at the collegiate level around the country.
“Our time just getting active, getting the word out there, spreading the word and retaining the players that come to try out the first time has greatly improved the club,” MSU Underwater Hockey Club President Kevin Koch said. “We’ve also gotten the message out there that we’re here to compete. We’ve gone to a bunch of competitions and other schools and clubs know that we are on the rise.”
The club typically competes in 3-4 tournaments each semester, and hosted its first tournament at MSU in nearly seven years back in February. The “Tournament of Love” was hosted by the club at IM West back in February and served as a chance for surrounding schools to visit MSU to compete and for the club to fundraise for upcoming events and equipment costs.
“The first tournament that MSU has hosted at MSU in the past like seven years because COVID kind of stopped the whole tournament of love thing,” Wasser said. “So that raised a bunch of money, we're going to hopefully we're going to continue doing the tournament of love and that'll be our fundraiser for the year.”
One of the reasons for the club’s increasing membership is the pitch given to people who are on the fence. With no mandatory time commitment, members are able to practice at their own pace. Additionally, the club provides much of the equipment needed to participate, which allows newcomers to participate and learn the game immediately.
“ All you have to do is show up with a swimsuit and towel and we provide the rest. And if you hate it, you don’t have to stay. If you love it, great, come back,” Koch said. “And what people love is that you can come to practice when you want, but it’s not required to. So really you can build it based on your schedule.”
Between traveling to tournaments together, practicing twice a week, and hosting other bonding events outside the pool for members to attend, the club has been able to establish a family atmosphere. For Koch, who is studying Games and Interactive Media and Spanish, the club has quickly become a new family.
“The people are just fantastic, there’s so many people that are now like basically my family, even though it’s only been two years because of how supportive everyone is,” Koch said.
Wasser shares the same sentiment, noting how being one of the original members of the club's resurgence has made it special for her to see the growth over the last few years.
“I was talking about it with the new older generation of underwater hockey that's like running practice and like now we've become the older people that are like running the youth and bringing up the youth and it's really, really weird,” Wasser said. “And it feels really, really like a family, which is, which is really lovely.”