Though Not a Champion, Ilana Was First

Ilana would never be a part of a number one, championship

team, but before she left the UW she would manage to be first.

lana Friedman has few regrets

during her time at the UWMadison, but a moment of
reflection reveals one, We never
won a national championship.

Ilana isnt burdened being the first

openly gay athlete at the UW. With
a modest hint of pride she says, I
dont resent it in any way. There has
to be one. It has to start with one.

During her two years with the

Badgers womens hockey team,
Ilana and her teammates came
enticingly close, but it didnt
happen. Ilana would never be a part
of a number one, championship
team, but before she left the UW
she would manage to be first.

For two years, every time she

suited up, the number on her jersey,
the number one, hinted at the role
she would soon play.

The casual hockey fan might not

have realized that Ilana had been
a part of the effort. Despite all the
training, the practices, the traveling
and the sacrifices, Ilana was not the
star goalie for the Badgers. Instead,
her good friend Alex Rigby would
fill that role.
There are no pangs of regret or
tinges of jealousy in her voice.
Instead, her words communicate a
genuine appreciation for her role
on the team and a true love for the
game.
For Ilana, hockey is more than a
sport, its a community - a family.
And as if to punctuate that
sentiment, Ilana admits that she
came out to her teammates before
anyone else.

Ilana took that theme of starting

with one and brought the You Can
Play initiative to the UW-Madison.
Designed to promote acceptance
for LGBT collegiate athletes, You
Can Play has a simple message:
sexual orientation is irrelevant to
the ability to play sports - If you
can play, you can play.
Ilana admits that goalies think
differently than the rest of the
team. They focus differently, Its
me stopping this or its a goal.
Theres no in between.
This binary thinking, the puck is
in or out, leads to a heavy sense
of responsibility. And for every
block she didnt make Ilana would
ask, What didnt I do to stop the
puck?
And while this all-or-nothing
attitude creates immense pressure
on the ice, its the same binary

Its me stopping this

or its a goal.

Theres
no in
between.
Ilana Friedman

the number on her jersey

hinted at the role

she would soon play.

Lisa Friedman

thinking that led Ilana to bring You

Can Play to Madison.

She first approached Sean

Fraizer, the former Deputy
Athletics Director, about bringing
the program to the UW. She
remembers the moment well, Sean
said, We do this 100% or not at all.
Discrimination, in any form, does
not stand at the UW. Not only had
Ilana found an ally, but shed found
one that thought like a goalie - in or
out, all or nothing.
Future athletes, gay and straight,
at the UW-Madison are fortunate
that it was a goalie who fought for
awareness and equality. Another
mindset might not have carried
the same responsibility that is
cultivated from guarding the net.
She was never the star and she
never won the championship,
but the UW is indebted to Ilana
Friedman for leading the way.