Makenna Webster, a former standout at Wisconsin, will be moving to Ohio State and plans to compete in both field and ice hockey. Credit: Tom Lynn
Makenna Webster was 7 years old when she started playing hockey, but her field hockey career began when she was in a physical education class.
Webster’s gym teacher, who grew up in St. Louis and attended elementary school, also coached field hockey. One day, Webster’s physical education teacher organized field hockey as a class activity, and it was there that her dual sports career began.
“We played field hockey as one of our units and I was good at it. And she told me to try it or play for the club in St. Louis called Gateway, so the next year after I started hockey I got into field hockey in second grade,” Webster said. “And I’ve been playing both field and ice hockey ever since.”
Webster moved to Ohio State in May after playing on the Wisconsin women’s hockey team for the past two seasons. Although she grew up playing two sports that she loved, Webster only competed in one at the collegiate level with the Badgers women’s hockey team because Wisconsin does not offer field hockey as a college sport.
However, she distinguished herself by winning a national championship and being named one of the Frozen Four Most Outstanding Players in 2020. She represented the United States at the International Ice Hockey Federation U-18 Women’s World Championships, winning gold twice in 2018–20.
Nonetheless, Webster continued to pursue her passion for field and ice hockey. Webster continued her career at Gateway Field Hockey Club, played through high school and recently promoted her team to the 2021 USA Field Hockey National Club Championship game in July 2021.
While at Team USA, Webster met Ohio State field hockey head coach Jarred Martin, who has coached the United States U-17 national team since 2015. Martin said he watched her compete in both sports on the ice and on the field.
“It’s one thing to do both — I think it’s another thing to be so successful at both,” Martin said. “But I think that just shows who she is as a person, her athleticism, her competitiveness. Just your commitment. I mean, she just loves to play.”
Webster parted ways with Wisconsin in April and entered the transfer portal. She recorded 66 points, 35 assists and 31 goals during her Badger career, leading her team with 30 assists and finishing third last season with 53 points and 23 goals.
Webster said she enjoyed her experiences and career in Wisconsin but wanted to continue playing field hockey.
“I only played hockey for the first two years of college, but then I really missed field hockey,” Webster said. “When I was playing this and helping out at Gateway camps over the summer, I realized how much I had missed it and decided to enter the portal.”
Ohio State women’s hockey head coach Nadine Muzerall and the Buckeyes won the first national championship in program history March, 20th. When Muzerall found out that Webster intended to transfer from Wisconsin, she got in touch.
Meanwhile, Martin said Gateway Field Hockey Associate Director Kate Graft — Webster’s field hockey coach in St. Louis — reached out to him with the news that Webster had entered the transfer portal, so he picked up the phone too.
“As soon as I found out, I reached out to Makenna and just talked about what she was looking for,” Martin said. “I told her I was like, ‘I’d love to be your coach. Nadine would like to be your coach. This is going to be a unique situation, but you have to be the one pushing the envelope.’”
Muzerall said that because Webster only played hockey in Wisconsin, she was only on the transfer portal for that sport.
Muzerall said she supports the idea of Webster’s dual-sport prospects and hopes to achieve her aspirations to bring in a key player in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Recalling her own soccer career growing up, she said she “always regretted” not exploring her options in college soccer before committing to hockey, so Muzerall is grateful to be making the most of it to get both worlds for her and Webster.
“She’s really supported with the resources that we have here, with our strength and conditioning, with our nutritionist and our sports psychologists and with our academic advisors,” Muzerall said. “That’s why I ended up supporting it because I trust my staff to make up for that for her and make sure she doesn’t burn out.”
For Webster, she will compete closer to the family, she said. Her father is from Cleveland and attended Kent State, and she has other relatives in Indiana. She will also have the opportunity to play field and ice hockey at Ohio State, a program she is already familiar with.
“They were always tough games, like a big Wisconsin-Ohio state rivalry. Ohio State is just a tough team to play,” Webster said. “They’re always working hard and always being physical and everything and I just love how coach Muzerall coaches them.”
The Buckeyes’ field hockey team begins preseason exhibitions against Ohio on August 17, and the women’s hockey program begins its season in Minnesota State on September 30, so the intersection of the two sports challenges Webster.
But Webster, Martin and Muzerall aren’t worried. The three plan to communicate with each other and haven’t set a firm schedule yet, but Webster is excited about the opportunity to practice the two sports she loves under one uniform.
“I think we’re just going to take it day by day. There’s just a great connection between all the employees,” Webster said. “It’s going to be tough of course, but at the end of the day it’s going to be a great experience and we’ll see how it goes.”
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