PWHL players bond with women’s hockey pioneers at Detroit clinic

DETROIT -- At first glance, the hockey clinic at Little Caesars Arena on Friday looked like just another day on the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s Takeover Tour.

Players from the New York Sirens were working with speedy players with ponytails flowing out of their helmets.

In this case, though, there was a major difference. Instead of helping the next generation of female hockey stars, they were working with the first generation.

The eager students at the Detroit Red Wings practice rink were the Polar Bears, a women’s team founded in 1972. After decades playing together, they now compete in a 60-plus division of the Michigan Senior Women’s Hockey League.

“Not bad for some old ladies,” Polar Bears captain Dawn Taylor said after the hourlong clinic. “This was a good workout and we learned some important things before going to nationals.”

Taylor wasn’t the only one impressed by her team’s energy.

“I love doing clinics like this, because we’re hanging out with the ladies at the same time we are teaching them,” said Haley Skarupa, a 2018 Olympic gold medalist with Team USA who retired from active competition in 2023. “We're 100 percent amazed at how well they get up and down the ice.”

The younger players also were putting in an effort. Detroit native and Sirens forward Elle Hartje joked that she was out of breath after doing skating drills with the Polar Bears.

Taylor was 10 when Peggy Wisusik created the team, and she has been playing ever since.

“There wasn’t much hockey for girls when we started,” Taylor said. “When we started playing, we used to skate with the guys, but they didn’t want us on their teams.

“Some of the brothers of the girls were happy to have us, though, and once we started playing, all of the guys said they wanted some of us on their teams.”

Wisusik’s daughter Karin Pearson is an active member of the team.

“If my mom was alive, she would be ecstatic to see how far we’ve come,” Pierson said. “Not just how big the sport is, but how talented the girls have become.

“I was pretty good, but on my best day, I wasn’t that good.”

Pearson was being modest -- she was good enough to be offered a scholarship by Boston University in 1980 -- but she loves watching women’s hockey at its highest levels.

“It is so exciting to watch the Olympics and the PWHL,” she said. “It’s amazing to see how fast the game has become and the growth in skill and puck control.

“I’m so proud that we are the generation that paved the way for all of this.”

Both generations on the ice Friday are intent on growing the game for today’s kids. Hartje and the Polar Bears believe an important step for women’s hockey in Michigan would be starting a Division I college team.

“I think if the PWHL establishes a team in Detroit, it will put a lot of pressure on the colleges to make sure there’s a D-I team in the state,” Hartje said. “Michigan has the second-highest number of players in the league, and it would have been a dream for us to be able to stay in the state to play.”

It’s been a problem for decades. Pierson had to turn down the offer from Boston University, because her family couldn’t afford to send her to New England for college. Hartje ended up at Yale University, and Megan Keller, who scored the gold medal winning goal for the U.S. in the 2026 Winter Olympics and plays for the PWHL’s Boston Fleet, went from suburban Detroit to Boston College.

Meanwhile, 2026 U.S. men’s Olympic team members and Michigan natives Dylan Larkin of the Red Wings and Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets were able to stay in the state to play with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, then based in Ann Arbor, before moving on to the University of Michigan in the same town.

“Megan’s brother played at Michigan State, and I’m sure she also would have stayed here to play for a Michigan school,” Skarupa said. “It’s imperative that Michigan gets a college program.”

Skarupa is serious about growing the game. She is working with Keller and the NHL Foundation U.S. to identify recipients for its $100,000 Empowerment Grant Program for Girls Hockey.

“Every time I go back to a city, there are new teams, new girls and new faces,” she said. “It’s a testament to growth all over the world, but it is tremendous inside the U.S.”