From The Michigan Daily
By Molly Ross
Katie Cummings didn’t grow up in a place known for hockey. In Nashville, Tenn., ice is usually something you order in a drink, not skate on. In a place where the sport lacked both visibility and opportunity, especially for girls, picking up a stick and skates wasn’t an obvious choice.
Cummings grew up watching and attending Nashville Predators games with her dad, sparking her love for the sport. But even with this passion, she didn’t start playing until she was 12 years old.
Her late start quickly turned into something more serious. With limited options for girls in the South, Cummings carved her own path. Starting in local leagues before joining travel programs, she eventually played four years of boys varsity high school hockey as the only girl on her team and one of only four female players in the entire state of Tennessee.
That experience was far from easy. It demanded not only resilience and confidence, but a willingness to be uncomfortable. It also accelerated her growth, pushing her to develop faster and compete at a higher level.
“It was definitely intimidating,” Cummings told The Michigan Daily. “The guys were nice to me, but at the high school age, there were some games where it was obvious that other players did target me, and I’m not one to complain about the checking or the contact, but it was to the point where other players were getting penalties for dirty hits on me.”
By the time she arrived in Ann Arbor, Cummings wasn’t just another player adjusting to college hockey — she was someone shaped by having to fight for her place in the sport.
“(Growing up playing with men) was a challenging experience, but it helped me push the pace of my game,” Cummings said. “It got me a lot more ice time so that I could end up playing at the college level. I was just focused on development and trying to do anything I could to get better. At the end of the day, I’m really thankful for that experience, and it made me a more confident person, because being in that uncomfortable situation for four years definitely challenges you, and you have to learn to just be comfortable with yourself.”
At Michigan, Cummings found something different. She joined a team of players who, similar to her, chose the university not just for hockey, but for everything else it offered. The Wolverines’ women’s club hockey team is made up of athletes who often had opportunities to play at NCAA varsity programs, but instead prioritized academics while still competing at a high level.
“I was looking at some NCAA Division III schools, specifically the NESCAC schools, which is a conference in the Northeast that are all very academic focused,” Cummings said. “I was mainly trying to choose college based on academics first, and then, if hockey was there also, that would be great. Michigan ended up having all of those things for me. It was like one of the best schools I got into, and then it also had the most competitive hockey.”
Cummings’ impact and performance grew each year in Ann Arbor. As a freshman, she appeared in all 26 games and recorded five points. In her sophomore season, her role expanded significantly, finishing with 13 points and earning the team’s Unsung Hero Award. By her senior year, she had become one of the team’s most consistent contributors, racking up 18 points and helping drive the team’s offense. Over the course of her career with the Wolverines, she played 79 games and recorded 36 total points. But over her three years, her influence extends far beyond the stat sheet.
Now serving as both team president and alternate captain, Cummings’ unique leadership role reflects the realities of club hockey. Unlike varsity programs, much of the managerial responsibility falls on the players themselves. From scheduling and budgeting to fundraising and program management, players are balancing school alongside running a team. At the same time, she helps lead on-ice culture, bridging the gap between teammates and coaches while maintaining the team’s competitiveness.
That dual responsibility is part of what makes Michigan’s program so unique. While it is technically a club team, it operates at a level that often mirrors varsity competition. The Wolverines regularly face teams with significantly more resources, including fully funded programs with athletes on scholarships, while competing at a high level within the ACHA.
“My team has become all of my best friends,” Cummings said. “It was a really great way to find my community. It also is really competitive, and I wasn’t sure what to expect hearing that. It is a club team, but a lot of the players on our team are people who are in the same situation as me. We’ve even had a lot of transfers from NCAA Division I and Division III programs. There’s also been a lot of girls who grew up in Michigan and just want to be back home, which also gets into the fact that the whole state of Michigan doesn’t have NCAA Division I women’s hockey.”
Despite the state of Michigan’s rich hockey culture, what Cummings said is true — the state does not have a single NCAA Division I women’s hockey program. For many players on the roster, that meant leaving their home state to pursue higher-level hockey opportunities before ultimately returning to Michigan for school.
Rather than viewing that as a limitation, the team embraced it. Beyond competing, they are helping build visibility for women’s hockey in the state, creating a foundation for future opportunities and showing younger players what is possible. That mission is reflected not just in their play on the ice, but in who they are off the ice.
“In our role right now, we don’t have any control over the process of adding a Division I program here, but we’re just trying to be really good role models for the next generation,” Cummings said. “We’re just trying to grow interest in women’s hockey and show young girls here in Michigan what they can be, and we’re just hoping that there’s better opportunities for those younger girls as they grow up, and that they’ll have more options when it comes to college, and that they can hopefully stay at home and play Division I hockey here.”
The team’s roster is filled with students pursuing demanding academic paths, from engineering to pre-med to pre-law, balancing rigorous coursework with the time commitment of a highly competitive hockey schedule. Cummings embodies that balance. As a political science pre-law student planning to graduate in just three years, she has been accepted into the University of Michigan Law School. She plans to continue playing while pursuing her degree, extending her time with the program even further into the next two seasons.
Looking ahead, her goals are both personal and holistic. She hopes to help lead the Wolverines to a club national championship while continuing to grow the program’s presence and competitiveness. Beyond her playing career, she plans to stay connected to the game through coaching, giving back to the same type of programs that helped her.
From a late start in Nashville to a leadership role at Michigan, Cummings’ path has never followed a traditional trajectory. Her journey reflects not just perseverance but also progression. A reminder that the growth of women’s hockey isn’t just happening at the highest levels of the sport, but in the players who are building it from the ground up.
(Originally published at https://www.michigandaily.com/sports/women-month/from-nashville-to-ann-arbor-katie-cummings-is-building-something-bigger-than-hockey/)
