Badgers’ dream season welcomed women’s hockey to campus
October 08, 2019 | Women's Hockey, Andy Baggot
Team’s all-in mentality and championship caliber took root in 1999
UWBadgers.com is looking back at Wisconsin Athletics' 1999-2000 season. Follow along throughout this year as we revisit this unheralded dream season for the Badgers.
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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Sis Paulsen fields the questions in good humor, knowing that her answers will elicit yelps of disbelief.
Twenty years after playing on the first women's hockey team at Wisconsin, Paulsen is still very much involved with the sport she loves. She serves as director of operations for the Badgers and Hall of Fame coach Mark Johnson, putting her in daily contact with the latest batch of her successors.
Some of the current players have quizzed Paulsen about her college playing career, which spanned from 1999 when the program played its inaugural season to 2003.
"It's kind of cool to look back and talk to the current kids when they're asking about what it was like then," she said.
Two decades after the debut of women's hockey made local headlines — part of a remarkable banner year for Wisconsin Athletics — today's players sit in a spacious, top-of-the-line dressing room wedged between the Kohl Center and LaBahn Arena. They play before sellout crowds. They travel comfortably. They can study, eat and train without ever having to step outside.
That's not how it was for Paulsen and Co.
Someone asked her where she sat in the current dressing room.
"This place didn't exist back then," Paulsen said of LaBahn Arena complex, which opened for business in 2012.
Thanks to the 2,273 fans that packed LaBahn Arena Friday and Saturday nights! We can't wait to play again at home in a couple of weeks #OnWisconsin
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerWHockey) October 6, 2019
Someone asked the obvious follow-up: Then where did the Badgers practice and play their games?
Paulsen explained that players dressed in the old visiting football locker room at Camp Randall Stadium and walked over to the neighboring Shell for practice.
As for games, she outlined how some were staged at the Kohl Center, but most took place at either the Alliant Energy Center, Capitol Ice Arena in Middleton or the Eagle's Nest in Verona.
"They laugh a lot," Paulsen said of the current players. "They don't understand."
The addition of women's hockey as a varsity sport was one of many celebratory moments for Wisconsin Athletics in 1999-2000. Ron Dayne won the Heisman Trophy, the Badgers won their second straight Big Ten Conference football title and followed it up with a second consecutive Rose Bowl victory. The men's basketball team reached the NCAA Final Four for the first time since 1941. The men's hockey team won the MacNaughton Cup and was ranked No. 1 in the nation. The women's basketball team won the Women's NIT. The list goes on.
Paulsen, a defenseman from Eau Claire, Wis., recorded the program's first hat trick while setting club records for penalties and penalty minutes. She ranks among the Badgers' top 20 career scorers with 42 goals, 88 assists and 130 points.
Paulsen said she had recruiting interest from multiple eastern programs as well as Minnesota, but she took one look at the Kohl Center, felt the home-state vibe and told her parents she was playing for the Badgers.
"It was a no-brainer for me," she said.
Like the rest of her teammates, Paulsen was a freshman recruited by Julie Sasner, who assembled the first roster and coached Wisconsin to a 19-14-2 overall record during its inaugural campaign.
"We were just excited that we got to play college hockey," Paulsen said.
Looking back, Paulsen said Sasner should be commended for the foundation she built. There were players from Alaska, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin as well as Saskatchewan.
"She did a great job of getting a core group of kids," Paulsen said. "We were close, we were hard-working and we had our hearts in it. She did a great job of getting good people who were passionate about the game, about the school and about each other."
During an interview that season, Sasner predicted the Badgers would be on national footing within five years. Her departure gave way to the arrival of Mark Johnson as coach in 2002. Wisconsin won the first of five NCAA titles in 2006 and is still going strong.
The first graduating class had eight members: Paulsen, Kendra Antony, Kathy Devereaux, Kelly Kegley, Jackie MacMillan, Julia Ortenzio, Michelle Sikich and Kerry Weiland.
"We were all leaders," Paulsen said. "We were in it together."
The new weekly #NCAAWHockey poll is out! 1 - @BadgerWHockey 2- @GopherWHockey 3 - @GoNUwhockey 4 - @CUknights 5 - @CornellWHockey
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) October 7, 2019
What piece of the puzzle did Paulsen and her ground-breaking teammates create?
"Right from the start, day one, we were very, very close," she said. "You look at our team now and we're very close.
"We kind of set the standard that we're all one group here. It's not freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. It was all as one."
Everyone picked up pucks after practice. Everyone helps load and unload the bus.
All the reminiscing brought a smile to Paulsen's face.
"I wish I had one more year," she said.
