Shaping the Game

While most student-athletes spend the offseason recharging and preparing for the upcoming season, Emma Pais is helping shape what the future of women’s hockey looks like.

As the only Division I student-athlete selected to sit on the NCAA Women’s Hockey Rules Committee, Pais spent her offseason helping rewrite the national rulebook. It is quite the evolution for a player who, just a few years ago, was joining a lineup full of dominant upperclassmen. Now, as she enters her final year in Hamilton, her fingerprints are all over the future of the sport.

The path to the NCAA Women’s Hockey Rules Committee wasn’t something Pais expected or even lobbied for. In fact, it started with a completely unexpected text message from Colgate women’s hockey head coach, Stefan Decosse.

"He reached out to me and said, 'I nominated you for the rules committee for the NCAA,'" Pais recalls. The committee reserves exactly one seat for a current student-athlete to ensure the players have representation alongside conference officials and administrators.

Initially, Pais was skeptical. "To be honest, when he texted me, I was kind of like, 'Okay, there's one student-athlete, I'm probably not going to be picked.' I was under the impression that every team nominated someone.”

A month later, an official email arrived from the NCAA. Pais hadn't just been nominated; she had been selected as the sole voice of the players for the entire sport.

Pais' influence extends well beyond Hamilton. The NCAA rules committee reviews the rulebook every two years and decides what needs to be changed and what remains the same.

"We all came together at the conference in Indianapolis and created the new rulebook for the next two years. This year was a rule-change year, so they were allowed to change any of the rules within the rulebook. For three days, we just went through the entire book and talked about what we wanted to change and what was proposed to be changed by the coaches for the next year."

Women’s hockey and its future have never been brighter. Not only is college hockey growing, the student-athletes are competing for the next step in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). 

The PWHL continues to expand, recently announcing franchises in Detroit, Hamilton, Las Vegas, and San Jose, bringing the league total to 12 teams. The continued growth of the next level impacts the landscape of women’s hockey as a whole.

“Every time a rule was proposed, it was talked about whether it mirrored where the game was going at the PWHL level, because obviously a lot of people in the NCAA's goal is to play there,” Pais recalled. “So definitely, the NCAA's main focus is trying to mirror the PWHL, but at the same time, also making rules that make sense for the age group at the NCAA and for college athletes who are also in school."

Balancing the NCAA and PWHL rules gave Pais an insight into the details of the rulebook. As a team captain, it is important to be able to clearly communicate with coaches, teammates, and referees. With a deeper understanding of the rules, Pais is already one step ahead.

"I obviously know the basic rules of hockey and everything like that, but having the opportunity to really see all the rules laid out and understand why certain rules are being put into place and why they're not, it was really impressive to me. The committee really thought about every angle."

The juggling act of Colgate’s rigorous academics, playing Division I hockey, and adding the challenge of serving on the NCAA rules committee can sound daunting. However, as the only student among administrators and coaches, Pais’ voice was eager to be heard, and the workload was surprisingly manageable.

"It was really nice because, being the only student-athlete, they really understand the student-athlete experience," Pais said. "So they weren't expecting a crazy time commitment from me. Most of it was looking at the clips before our call, and then it was only a call once a month for an hour."

The opportunity stands in stark contrast to where Pais was when she first arrived on campus.

"Coming in as a first-year at the end of that COVID year...my only real focus was trying to do whatever I could to help the team win."

Now, as she prepares to lead Colgate into her final season, she isn’t just trying to find her place in a lineup. She is leaving an unforgettable mark on the sport itself. Long after she plays her final shift in a Raiders uniform, Pais’ influence will be felt not only in Hamilton, but across the country.

"Looking at this year, having a bigger role from an NCAA level is just something that I definitely never thought would happen."