On Sunday, the Trinity hockey team advanced to the NCAA Third Division Final Four for the first time since 1998. This is the third time in school history that they beat Babson 2-0, which gives them reason to celebrate. Even better, the Bantams will play their home games as the hosts of the final four for the first time this coming weekend.

However, the championship game will take place in the context of the university's demands for change. Female athletes, including members of the hockey team, called for a review of Article 9 on the grounds that campus sports facilities are unfair.

"I am very excited, but it is difficult to fully accept what is happening and what we are going to experience instead of trying to prove a point of view that has nothing to do with the game in our minds," said Trinity senior hockey player India Shea. "It's frustrating because we should only consider the success of the weekend and the success we can hope to achieve next weekend."

The NCAA needs 1,000 seats to host the last four games, and Trinity owns it. Compared with what happens on the side of the football field, this appearance does not fully meet the expectations of hockey players. When the hockey players arrived in the preseason in August, the football stand at Jesse/Miller Stadium was being renovated and was nearing completion, but the hockey stadium at Robin L. Shepard Stadium did not.

The two venues are adjacent to each other with back-to-back stands, and there is a news box at the top of the middle of the two venues. The initial renovation project was to build the football stand to the press stand and adopt a similar appearance on the hockey side. Instead, the old hockey stands and equipment shed were removed, leaving no storage area for the team. A set of metal stands was then installed, and some older stands were introduced to increase the number of seats. In the past week, temporary stands have increased.

In response to inequality, the female athletes of Trinity College formed a group called TrinWAL (Trinity College Women's Athletics League) and launched a petition that received more than 2,000 signatures. They met with Sany Sports Director Drew Galbraith and other university officials. On November 4, University President Joanne Berger-Sweeney wrote to the Sany Community, promising to support these women and conduct Title IX audits.

"In preparation for the NCAA Final Four and Championship, the stadium’s proposed plan can accommodate 1,000 spectators on the sideline of the Shepard Stadium (women’s stadium), but it turned out to be a set of humble five-row metal stands within a few days. Settings. Regardless of the plan, the quality of the final product on the Sheppard side is different, and it cannot provide the same audience experience as the Miller side (men),” wrote the online petition.

Galbraith said there was a misunderstanding. The initial drawings should not be shown to donors and others who fund the project. The plan is not to build stands on both sides equally, and the project is still in progress.

"We want to include Title IX in Trinity's project planning," said Emlyn Patry, a junior hockey player from York, Maine. "It should be like ADA compliance. We want to get the exchange from the school because we saw the photo of the rendering, just like the trustee and the alumni, donate to it, and then we didn't communicate until they basically said, "This It’s a ribbon-cutting ceremony." This won’t work."

The old Trinity wooden football news box still stands opposite Jessee/Miller Field. Galbraith said that the press stand and the adjacent stand were condemned by the City of Hartford in 2017, and the other side of the stand was determined to be unsafe. Before each event, the structural engineer must come to inspect the stands.

In 2019, the school began to promote the renovation project of Jessee/Miller Field and Robin L. Sheppard Field.

“Before the project is approved, this is an idea stage, and a picture has been completed to see the appearance of the new skyscraper [the stadium] and the appearance of the potential stadium,” Galbraith said. "And I believe that the artist's idea at the time was to reflect the existence of hockey, because it was still a kind of'we will definitely do something in the hockey stands; we don't know [what]." But this is "some people are excited to have Some motivation went to the trustee and said, "We want to do these things and get approval."

"Somehow, the image of [football and hockey stadium] got into some materials, some advanced materials to show people. Once we start this project and actually start designing it, we won't show it regularly. It's very regrettable. No matter how it happens, it will make people expect different things to come."

The campus newspaper Trinity Tripod reported that on March 23, the vice president of student success and admissions, Joe DiChristina (Joe DiChristina) sent an email announcing that the construction of the stadium would be completed in the fall of 2021. The email states that the complex will include: "On the Jessee/Miller and Sheppard stadiums, Trinity and the new auditorium for visiting fans will provide comfort, convenience, and ample space, allowing you to have a clear view from any seat. Enjoy the game with sight, one supporting these two stadiums and providing modern, professional media and coaching environment, two enclosed suites for watching games and stadium-related activities, for Trinity athletes and away teams for pre-match, intermission and cold weather Practice conservatory and modern, barrier-free toilet facilities."

Hockey players believe that their field will be renovated when they return to school in August. When they showed up and saw the new football stand and a large white tower on the side of the football, they were shocked. There was an elevator on the top of the tower, leading to the disabled access at the top of the stand.

Patrice said: "Our team has not been touched yet, except for the fact that all our stands have disappeared last year." "The sports director came after a week or two in the preseason, and he said we would start watching. The changes to our side will look very good. Within a day, our stand was set up. It is a set of five rows of stands, which is less than ours before.

"We have fewer seats now, and they got rid of our equipment shed, where there is lighting and power to charge the iPad for game movies. So now we are told that we can use the containers they left after construction. We get It’s less than what we got before, and it was built in a day.

"We are frustrated. We don't want to use band-aids on this issue. Obviously there are systemic problems on campus."

Shay said that the container was filled with construction equipment and was locked. Hockey players have to store their equipment under the baseball field.

"We have a complete shed with hooks, trash cans and everything in it, and they took it away. Now we have something that looks like a trash can on the other side of the venue, which looks terrible," Shea Say.

The father of India, Jim Shay, donated what his daughter called "a considerable sum" to the stadium project.

"The school forgot to inform the donor or some of the changes that the donor made after they pitched the ball to the donor," Jim Shea said. "I received a very thorough, thoughtful and kind apology from the school. As far as my anxiety is concerned, the school solved the problem, I accepted their apology and attributed it to'shit happened.'"

He did understand why his daughter was upset.

"This is not a great chapter in this field, and I feel sorry for everyone involved," he said. "I feel sorry for athletes first, because most of the time, my kids will say that this is a pattern in life. My point of view is that these kinds of things are slow drips. drips, drips, drips. Over time , It will erode a person’s sense of self-worth or importance."

Galbraith said that eventually permanent grandstand seats will be built (although not as high as the football side), and there will be permanent heated buildings and toilets on the hockey side.

Trinity’s female athletes stated that issues involving inequality have been brewing for years, and softball teams complained about playing on grass with no fixed stands, lights or news boxes, and scoreboards that couldn’t work all the time.

Softball has struggled with inferiority complex for many years. The baseball stadium was built in 2013 and has artificial turf, permanent stands, permanent news boxes and lights.

"This has been an ongoing problem since 2013, when the baseball field was originally donated and they had to match it with a softball field," said third-first softball player Meeka Bolduc, a senior third base. hand. "Since then, the road to softball has been bumpy.

"It is frustrating that we have been dealing with this issue for years. Coaches, parents and alumni have all expressed their frustration and concern that the plan has not been dealt with like baseball."

The players said they were told that the city of Hartford would not allow schools to place any artificial turf after studies at the time showed that particles in the turf may cause cancer-but hockey, football, and baseball all have turf. They were also told that they could not have lights because the city government said the school had enough lights and there was a light pollution problem.

Title IX expert Donna Lopiano said that Title IX does not require specific sports like baseball and softball to be treated equally. Instead, the entire sports sector must be evaluated.

"If I were a Title IX consultant and I did an assessment, one rule we have to follow is that you compare all female facilities with all male facilities, then an equal percentage of these athletes need similar services," the woman Said Lopiano, former CEO of the Sports Foundation and current president of Sports Management Resources.

Galbraith said that the problem of softball fields is under study, and the main focus is on adding permanent stands, news boxes and repairs to the scoreboard. He said the school will approach Hartford again and ask about the lighting and artificial turf.

He said: "Our female student athletes feel pain, and they think they are not being treated fairly generally. This idea is even more surprising." "This is something we have to work hard on."

You can contact Lori Riley at lriley@courant.com.