Nadine Muzerall, right, the head hockey coach for the Ohio State University and Marysville resident, talks to the media after the Buckeyes won the NCAA Frozen Four national championship. She is pictured with OSU players Liz Schepers, left, and Kenzie Hauswirth, center. (AP photo)
NCAA Division I championship gold has come to Marysville.
The Ohio State University women’s hockey team became the second (after synchronized swimming) OSU female team to win an NCAA championship.
They did so under the guidance of head coach Nadine Muzerall, a local resident.
The team claimed the Frozen Four title last weekend with a 3-2 victory over Minnesota-Duluth. The game was played at Penn State University.
Muzerall and her family have been residents of Marysville since she became the OSU coach in August of 2016.
“I had been hired at Ohio State pretty late,” she told the Journal-Tribune during a telephone interview. “We had a house in Minnesota we needed to sell and I was trying to figure out where we were going to live in central Ohio.
“Someone at Ohio State mentioned Marysville is a growing community and I should look there,” said Muzerall, who is a native of Canada.
“I began looking and discovered we could basically purchase the same house in Marysville for less than what we could in say, Dublin or Worthington.”
Since that time, the coach and her family have grown to love the area.
Her children, Isabella (8) and Brady (6) are students at Trinity Lutheran School.
“It’s a fantastic school,” she said.
Muzerall said she also enjoys the community feel offered by the town.
“We fell in love with Marysville and our neighbors,” she said of the family’s home in Scotts Farm. “People here know you and it has a family feeling.”
And to think, Muzerall wasn’t all that sure about taking the OSU position.
She was the assistant coach at the University of Minnesota for five years before she was approached by Ohio State officials.
“At first I wasn’t sure,” she said.
It was her husband, Ryan Venturine, who persuaded her to look into it.
“Ryan is a former Big Ten football player (at Minnesota),” said Muzerall, who kept her maiden name for professional purposes.
“He said, ‘Are you crazy… it’s Ohio State,’” she said. “He told me I would have the best of everything there.”
Muzerall went to Columbus to interview for the job and was soon hired.
She realized right away revisions would have to be made within the program.
“I knew we’d have to change the culture of OSU women’s hockey,” she said. “All I had known before getting hired was the fact the previous coach had been fired.”
It was not an overnight process.
The Buckeyes finished with a 14-18-5 record and placed fifth in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association during Muzerall’s initial season of 2016-17.
That was followed by a 24-11-4 finish (second in the conference) and a trip to the Frozen Four.
This past campaign saw the Buckeyes win 32 of their 38 games.
Muzerall is now 127-63-17 for her career at Ohio State.
The coach said she had her first inkling about this year’s success at the end of the 2020-21 season.
“We had been to the Frozen Four three of the previous four seasons, but had always fallen short,” she said. “We were tired of that and I think the ladies just had that edge to them going into this past season.
“They really wanted to win the whole thing.”
When they did last Sunday, television cameras caught Muzerall bent over, crying with emotion.
Although the team had plenty of talent returning, there were still some questions about the 2021-2022 roster.
“We brought in eight new players through the NCAA transfer portal,” said Muzerall. “There were some questions about how the new players would fit in with the team and whether there would be a problem with chemistry.”
That, however, turned out to be a non-issue.
The Buckeyes picked up a couple of extra defensive players and two additional forwards through the portal.
Those players, Muzerall said, helped build team depth that may not have necessarily been there during the team’s previous Frozen Four appearances.
“The addition of those players was very instrumental to our success,” she said.
Muzerall also didn’t have to “police” the team’s locker room as she had done earlier in her tenure.
“Our team leaders controlled the locker room,” she said. “They made everyone on the team be accountable for their actions.”
That, Muzerall said, takes a big load off a coach’s shoulders.
The Marysville resident isn’t just someone who came out of the woodwork to become a national championship coach.
As a member of the inaugural University of Minnesota women’s hockey team, she is the school’s all-time leader with 139 career goals, including a record 40 power-play goals.
Muzerall began her playing career as a youngster and rose through the ranks of Canadian hockey.
“I grew up with hockey,” she said. “In Canada, everyone has a rink in their backyard.
“I started ice skating at a young age and then got into the sport.”
Muzerall said that’s the best way for a child to start down the hockey road.
“Teach them to skate when they’re young because that’s when they’re fearless,” she said.
Her own children began on the ice at a young age and have been taking hockey lessons.
“For $200, they receive lessons and equipment,” she said. “It’s pretty easy and they’re learning (the sport).”
There are boys hockey teams at high schools in Dublin, Worthington, Hilliard and Upper Arlington, to name a few.
The sport has not come to Union County, but who knows what the future holds?
There is currently no sanctioned high school girls hockey in Ohio, but Muzerall said that hasn’t impeded its progress.
“There are plenty of club teams in the Michigan and Pennsylvania areas,” she said, adding she’d like to see more similar squads sprout in Ohio.
“If you can develop enough club teams for girls, there isn’t really a need for high school girls hockey – although it’s getting closer,” she said.
Muzerall said the Columbus Blue Jackets are in the beginning stages of helping form a 14U girls team.
“And what comes after 14U,” she said. “16U and so forth.”
The OSU coach said girls and women’s hockey is among the fastest growing sports in the United States.
“The Blue Jackets are giving girls youth hockey a good start in this area,” she said. “They want to become invested in it.”
One big drawback, though, for girls hockey to date is a lack of facilities.
Boys teams use what little rink space is available in central Ohio.
“There aren’t enough hockey facilities,” said Muzerall. “There’s no where to go.
“It’s difficult to find ice time during after-school hours because facilities are already busy.”
Despite the current obstacles, Muzerall feels girls and women’s hockey will continue to surge.
“We had a girls youth hockey team from Ohio follow us to the Frozen Four,” she said. “It was great to see that type of support.
“I think what we accomplished by winning the national championship will serve as a role model for young girls.”
With the national championship trophy in hand, Muzerall feels more success is in store for the Buckeyes.
All that’s needed now, she said, is a new facility.
The team plays in an older building that is adjacent to St. John Arena on the Ohio State campus.
“When I was interviewing for the job, I took a tour of the Ohio State facilities,” she laughed. “I asked what is the name of the ice rink and the answer was ‘The Ice Rink.’
“I said, ‘yes, what is the name of the facility,” said Muzerall, “and they said that was the name… ‘The Ice Rink.’”
The facility currently goes by the moniker “Ice Rink” and Muzerall feels the structure needs to be replaced.
“The next development at Ohio State is a new rink,” said the coach, adding she hopes the facility can be up and operating within the next five years.
Muzerall said the OSU women’s team is No. 1 in the country and needs a more updated place to call home.
“If you come to Ohio State, you’re going to obtain a great education and play great hockey,” she said. “If we build a new facility, it’s going to be ‘game over.’”