WATCH: Dani Rylan Interviews senior hockey forward Tyler McNeely

By: Ryan Cloutier, News Correspondent

Dani Rylan is not your average Division I women’s hockey player.

Not only is she a graduate student, but she is also advancing her career as a sports journalist.

At 23, Rylan is the oldest player on the team. She is also the only graduate student on the team and a first-year player for the Huskies.

After earning a broadcast journalism degree from Metropolitan State College in Denver, Co., she came to Northeastern out of a desire to play hockey, she said. The coincidence of a past recruiting encounter with Huskies third-year head coach Dave Flint got her onto the ice at Matthews Arena. Flint tried to recruit Rylan during her senior year at St. Mark’s High School in Southborough when he was the head coach at St. Anselm College.

“When Coach Flint worked at St. Anselm he recruited me originally, so I contacted him in December before I moved out here, and he said I had a roster spot if I came out here,” Rylan said. “So I applied and got in.”

Having a graduate student play on a college team is not as complicated as one might imagine, Flint said.

“All they have to do is make sure they are within the age limit and they have eligibility,” Flint said. “So she had to check all of that with Clearinghouse.”

As far as eligibility goes, a graduate student can participate in Division I athletics if he or she has any of their four years of eligibility remaining, and are within five calendar years of initial full-time collegiate enrollment.

And as far as age goes, as long as you have eligibility, you can play.

Flint may have promised Rylan a jersey, but that doesn’t  mean she was promised playing time.

“I told her that she would get a jersey and how much she would play I didn’t know, because I hadn’t seen her play in four plus years,” Flint said.
The Tampa, Fla. native rose to the challenge of competing at the Division I level, Flint said. Despite not having as much Division I experience as some of her teammates, Rylan has managed to make herself an important part of the team.

“She’s a role player for us,” Flint said. “She’s not quite at that level of a higher-end player or a leader or an Olympic-level player. But she has exceeded where the coaching staff thought she would be. She’s playing a regular shift for us, we’ve got her on penalty kill and she’s contributing every night.”

Since joining the Huskies, Rylan has accrued five points, all of which are from assists.
Before skating at Matthews, Rylan played for a year on Metro State’s Division II men’s hockey team. While there, she accrued eight points for the season, five assists and three goals.

“[Playing at Northeastern] is definitely faster paced, smarter hockey, more commitment,” Rylan said.
Rylan also spent time interning at Fox Sports Network in Colorado, an experience she described as “awesome.”

“I got the experience to travel with the [Rockies],” Rylan said. “I was basically a production assistant. I got the opportunity to work on my demo reel.”

Rylan is also furthering her sports broadcasting career by taking advantage of opportunities at Northeastern. She is currently enrolled in the sports leadership program and is a sports reporter for NUTV. Rylan has also picked up an internship at the local NBC affiliate, Channel 7, which starts in January.

Despite a hectic schedule, Rylan is doing what she loves, and Flint said her presence brings some maturity and diversity to a young team.
One would think being a graduate student on a team riddled with freshmen and sophomores would alienate Rylan from her teammates. She disagrees.

“Everyone is here because we love hockey, so I can’t wait to get into the locker room every day to be with those girls,” Rylan said.