Most people are surprised to discover that underwater hockey is a real sport, let alone that the University has its own Underwater Hockey Club. Invented in England in 1954, underwater hockey made its way to the University in the ’70s and has been swimming in its pools ever since.
Underwater hockey is played similarly to regular hockey, except it’s underwater. Instead of helmets and padding, players wear snorkels and fins and play using a short stick and a weighted puck. Players dive down to the bottom of the pool, then make their plays underwater before coming up for air.
Paris Smaragdis, associate head of the CS department and UWH Club coach, said he is usually met with disbelief when he tells people about the sport.
“I think the image that pops into most people’s head is someone wearing a proper ice hockey suit being at the bottom of the pool, which, of course, is not what we’re doing,” Smaragdis said. “So once we explain it to people, they get it, but obviously a lot of people are mystified when they first hear the term.”
Mabel Benig, sophomore in FAA and co-captain of UWH Club, said the most unique aspect of the sport is the tricky angles being underwater creates.
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“You’re playing with people to the sides of you, in front of you, behind you and above you, and (in) no sport do you really have the consideration of ‘a player could be coming from above me,’” Benig said.
Finn Sears, freshman in Engineering and vice-captain of UWH Club, explained that because of the nature of the sport, players must rely heavily on one another to complete plays.
“In its essence, it’s a great full-body workout that also has a really good teamwork setting and forces you to really work with other players, because physically, no player can be doing everything all the time, because you have to breathe,” Sears said. “It forces you to develop a teamwork system that I really enjoy.”
UWH Club will host a tournament on April 13 and 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the ARC pool with local midwestern clubs from Michigan State, Chicago, Minnesota and Milwaukee.
The tournament will be held in a potluck style. Everyone will register individually and then split into random teams. The first day will be a round robin, and the second will be a single-elimination tournament where one team will emerge victorious.
“It’s a really fun way to get the community of underwater hockey together outside of just our team, and to improve skills and share knowledge and ability between more experienced and newer players being mixed onto teams,” Benig said.
In addition to the upcoming tournament, the UWH Club attends the Denver UWH Nationals competition every summer. This past summer, the club placed second in the C Division. In past years, the team has made it up to fourth in the A Division.
These divisions are based on a team’s experience level. Since this year’s club has a younger group of players than previous years, they chose to register in the C Division.
“Now we have a very young team, we don’t have a lot of grad students who have a lot of experience, but it is still an achievement for the team,” Smaragdis said.
The University has a long tradition of producing skilled UWH players from its small club. Last year, several UWH Club players made it to both the men’s and women’s American Under-24 teams at the 2024 Worlds in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Currently, four alumni are also playing on international teams.
“We always had a strong showing because we’re one of the oldest clubs in the country; we have a big tradition, and we just happen to turn out really good players,” Smaragdis said.
Last year, three recently graduated seniors played in Tahoe, Nevada, where the world’s largest UWH pool is being built. The entire outside of the pool is glass, so spectators can watch the sport from the ground floor from all angles.
“It’s an extremely high-level playing arena,” Sears said. “Only the best are doing that because it’s the most state-of-the-art competition.”
Smaragdis said he hopes to continue growing the team’s numbers. He encourages anyone interested in the sport to come check out the club.
“Our club is very friendly, we do have a lot of entry-level players, so it’s not like you’ll come in and we’ll completely kill you,” Smaragdis said. “If anybody’s interested, just show up and we’ll be happy to take you to the side, show you the ropes and get you playing.”
