Though it might be one of the less-known –– and less believably titled –– club sports at Cornell, the Underwater Hockey Club is indeed a Cornell club as improbable as it sounds. Team member Miriam Goler ’09 called it, “… an absolutely ridiculous sport, but ridiculously fun and [the club has] a wonderful bunch of people.”

Despite initial doubts Goler decided to check it out. He continued, “I didn’t believe it was a real sport when my friend told me he played underwater hockey, but I got hooked after one practice.”

The Cornell Underwater Hockey Team is coached by Maki Inada, a senior research associate in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.

Inada said her interest in the sport began before she came to Cornell. She said, “I used to play in San Francisco and I moved here about a year and a half ago or so and there was no team here,” Inada continued. “However when I came to Ithaca there wasn’t a team here.”

After getting together with another local underwater hockey player she decided to start a hockey team here. Inada said, “We had both played before and were dying to play here and after we had approached a bunch of pools for some pool time, eventually Cornell gave us some pool time. Although, Inada adds, “It’s actually been pretty challenging trying to get pool time here.”

“However,” Inada continued, “We’ve been playing in the small shower practice pool which is only a depth of three feet instead of the normal regulation depth or seven or eight feet so we’re trying to get more time for our people to practice in a real pool.”

Unlike clubs geared primarily at undergraduate students, Cornell’s Underwater Hockey Club is funded by the Staff and Professional SAFC or SPSFAC. Inada said, “They’ve helped us buy some additional starter gear and fund some social events and stuff like that.

Inada explained the decision not to use an undergraduate funding source when she said, “It’s a team made up of a whole variety of people –– it’s mostly graduate students but there’s some undergraduate students and staff. The water really equalizes people in allowing them to play against each other at different ages.”

Team member Kaylie Ackerley ’12 concurred: “Underwater hockey is a sport for everyone. It allows you to combine swimming, snorkeling and hockey all in one amazing sport!” Inada added, “It’s kind of hard to convey how wacky this sport until you try it.”

The sport is somewhat like hockey played on the bottom of the pool. Inada described, “What you do is you wear snorkeling gear –– mask, snorkel, fins –– and the puck is really heavy and sinks to the bottom of the pool and the stick is not like an ice hockey stick it’s much shorter. So you play on the bottom of the pool and have to hold your breath.”

She continued, “It’s usually played six on six and there’s no goalie. We just have defense and, or course, the goal of team sports like this is to score goals.”

Inada continued,” Basically as you can imagine, one of the things that’s really unique about underwater hockey is that you’re holding your breath when you play so being able to pass the puck well to your teammates or being able to communicate well with your team is tantamount.”

Stephen Zelno ’09, another teammate summed up the sport, saying, “Underwater hockey is a great workout. We’re all friendly people. Between classes, studying and parties in Collegetown, it’s the only thing I look forward to in the week.”