The puck drops with a hollow clatter. Hockey sticks hit the ice. Faces concealed by masks follow the puck, guiding it to the netted goal. But a closer look at one masked face may surprise a few Northwestern students.
When Dr. Martina Bode first laced up her skates and wielded a hockey stick as a graduate student at Brandeis University, she did not envision herself returning to the sport several years later. Now director of calculus and a distinguished senior lecturer at Northwestern, Bode is a full-fledged double threat.
“It fits in nicely because it’s in the evening and weekends,” says Bode, a mother of two. “Basically it means that during the hockey season all I do is work and play hockey.”
Despite the time-crunched schedule of teaching, practicing and competing, she is in good company on her team, the Wilmette Cougars: other players include attorneys, yoga instructors, an eye doctor and staff from Weinberg and Kellogg.
“It’s a wonderful group of women; we’re like a family,” says Bode. And it is no mystery why these women cultivate a bond stronger than ice — the six-month season spanning from September to March has them practicing and competing between two and four times each week. The spring and summer seasons, though less time-consuming, are still prime for participating in tournaments, which Bode calls “pretty competitive.”
Like Bode, Michele Weldon, a Medill assistant professor of journalism, laces up her skates in her spare time. As if teaching, public speaking, writing, blogging and parenting weren’t enough, in January she picked up another intense activity: roller derby.
“People have the perception that you’re just shoving each other and it’s highly violent and crazy,” says Weldon. “It’s kind of funny because they think just because you use your brain for a living that you can’t participate in a sport.”
As a member of the Derby Lite, the Medill alum straps on protective gear and hits the track weekly. Although she currently has no ambition to move past the intermediate level, she has proven that roller derby is not just for the aggressive type.
“My sisters all said, ‘Oh you’re going to fall, you’re going to get hurt,’” says Weldon, who has been teaching since 1996. “I’m not completely uncoordinated. I just thought it would be a really good time, and it really — it’s a blast.”
The printed version of this article incorrectly stated that Michele Weldon skates for the Windy City Rollers. She skates for Derby Lite.