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Mid-MO Activist holds anti-ICE protest in accordance with national shutdown
2026 Grammy nominee Alarm Will Sound features two Mizzou faculty members
Iranian Student Association holds demonstration amidst Iranian unrest
Student petition calls on university to halt Show-Me AI development
Missouri women’s basketball would benefit from a starting lineup change
The University of Missouri will launch a women’s club hockey program in the 2026–27 school year, aiming for a fully competitive team by the 2027–28 season.
“We’re really excited about it. I think that what the difference is going to make is it’s going to provide another place for all these girls that are playing hockey in St. Louis and other areas, to have another opportunity to continue their hockey careers in college,” John Lamond, Mizzou club hockey CEO, said.
With goals of building a competitive hockey team, the 2026–27 season will serve as a testing period to evaluate talent. The team will be formed during initial tryouts, then practice together and play a limited number of games. Those athletes will have about a year and a half to prepare for full competitive play in the fall season.
“They’ll be very similar to the guys tryouts, a few on ice sessions, there’ll be some off ice workouts, and then there’ll be kind of a conversation that takes place amongst the coaches and the executive group to determine who is in our our first group or first team, and then we’ll start the recruiting process now to really look at who can we get to come in to the University of Missouri for that 27-28 season,” Lamond said.
The women’s team will join the American College Hockey Association and compete at the Division II level, with a second team competing at the Division III level. Missouri is expected to face programs including Ohio State University, Central Michigan University, University of Illinois and Miami University. The ACHA Division II level currently includes more than 84 teams.
“There’s some really good girls teams across the Midwest. We’re going to have to have to really get after it to be competitive early, and we know that, and the girls that come in here will know that as well,” Lamond said.
Discussions regarding hiring a potential head coach for the women’s team have begun. Lamond’s goal is to help move those decisions forward in collaboration with the hockey staff that has helped develop the program.
“They’ve just been really nice to me, and there’s a lot of people that do a lot of the legwork, and I’m the old guy that’s been around for a while,” Lamond said. “I help manage things based on, I’ve been through all this before, there’s a lot of people doing a lot of hard work that deserve a lot of credit for where the program’s at and how it’s moving forward.”
Lamond said efforts to build a rink in the area have been ongoing for nearly 20 years. The rink was initially approved as part of a city development plan, but it was later removed, a decision he said disappointed many in the community.
“We were working on our own to try and incorporate the city, incorporate the university where it can, but there’s a really strong swelling of a group of people that want to make a ring happen in Columbia,” Lamond said.
With the program taking shape and community support building, Mizzou’s Women’s Club Hockey team is ready to offer new opportunities for athletes while helping grow the sport in the region.
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