Assumption University defender Annabel Ziskin’s collegiate hockey path took the road less travelled. After spending her undergraduate career at Division III’s William Smith College, she transferred to Division I’s Assumption University as a graduate student. She recently spoke to The Ice Garden about making the jump between divisions, video games, and her plans for the future.
You started your college career at a Division III school before making the move to Division I as a graduate. What was that transition like?
Yeah, there was a lot of different factors that went into it. So I started at Hobart & William Smith in 2021 played three and a third-ish years. During my senior year, I fractured my ankle and ended up needing surgery, which obviously ruled me out for the year. In my career at William Smith, I had been an all conference player twice. All my friends were graduating as well as I was, and I was really hoping to play at the next level. So I entered the transfer portal.I didn’t really know anyone who had been through it before, and coming off an injury, but I got really lucky that I ended up here.
Maybe it doesn’t seem like it, but going from playing 27 games to 38 games is such a big difference. The speed of the game is a lot faster. You’re allowed to be a lot more physical with other teams as well. They’re definitely on the track of allowing full body checking, except for open ice hits.
How did that injury affect your plans for the future?
Honestly, I say it’s the best-worst thing that ever happened to me. Going through surgery is difficult, but I was a senior. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do after graduation. I really wasn’t ready to be done playing hockey either. It gave me something to look forward to. I also ended up here so I could get my MBA, which was something I probably would have done [somewhere] along the line in my life anyway. So it worked out really well for me.
We don’t see a lot of players who make the move from DIII to DI. What did you learn about yourself going through that process?
Yeah, I agree, you don’t see a lot of girls make that jump. I feel like it’s maybe more common to like switch divisions in other sports. I also originally grew up playing ice hockey. I’m from Long Island, so I played basically only boys’ hockey through my junior year of high school, and then I switched to playing girls for my senior year. I committed fairly early on into my senior year as well, probably mid October, early November.
So growing up without doing any of those things that are typical, you also don’t really have a lot of contacts. It’s not like I had coaches that had reached out to me earlier, so it was definitely intimidating. But, my head coach at William Smith, Matt Cunningham, was helpful. He reached out to some places for me as well. But, I also definitely got lucky. I entered the transfer portal on a Monday, and my head coach here, Joe Grossman, emailed me within the hour.
I truthfully did not get really any other Division I interest after he reached out to me. Maybe a month and a half later, my head coach reached out to another coach at the Division I level for me, who then emailed me. But, I had basically decided I was going to Assumption at that point.
I was reading your Assumption bio, and you literally made me do a spit take onto my computer. When I saw you listed your celebrity resemblance to Mrs. Met, I lost it.
Through my MBA program, I have to intern in the fall in the spring. Last fall, I interned in the Assumption communications office. And then this spring, I interned at Holy Cross in athletics for marketing. When I was working at the Assumption communications office, my boss had me write all of our player bios and put in everyone’s answers.
I had a lot of time to think about my answers, because I was the one doing it. I could change it at any point, really, because I had the login. And, yeah, I honestly just wanted it to be funny. Like, it’s my last year.
The other thing that I noticed was you listed your favorite athlete as Pablo Sanchez, and I immediately caught the Backyard Sports reference. Are you a gamer, by any chance? Between that and Brick Breaker, it sounds like you’ve got an old school flair.
It was kind of like a running bit in my house when I was younger. We all had the game. And my my brother and my dad, they know so much about professional sports. [My brother] is now a news reporter, and does play-by-play as well for an ECHL team.
He knows everything: any stat you could have, he knows. He’s two years older than me, and when we were younger, he used to play ‘real or fake’ with my dad, and he was like, ‘Pablo Sanchez, real or fake?’ Since then it’s been a running bit.
I love that your entire bio has the vibe of, like you mentioned, just wanting to have fun and really get the most of the experience.
No, yeah, I definitely was. I know another thing that’s on there is something about how my dad’s going to compete in the Octogenarian Olympics. My parents didn’t play hockey; my parents really weren’t athletes at all. And a lot of girls at this level, their bios say, like ‘dad played in this, ‘mom played in that.’ My dad’s in his early to mid 50s, which for him means his health journey. His joke is that he’s going to compete in something he found on TikTok called the Octogenarian Olympics.
So what are your plans for the future? Are you thinking of turning pro, or you think your career might be finished?
[For] a lot of girls growing up like this was the dream for them. There was no pro when I was little; Division 1 hockey was really as far as you could dream. Coming [to Assumption] was really like ‘I got to do that.’ I got to live out that dream of mine. And so for me, I never really thought I’d say this, but… I’m good. I’m happy.
I had such a great experience here as well with the team. We were so much more successful than anyone expected us to be as well. In the regular season we placed second and we were picked to pick to place sixth, so that’s a big jump. My dad would love for me to play pro in Europe, but I’m just not in that place. I’m weighing my options of a couple different job offers as well. My boyfriend works for the Providence Bruins; we’re signing a lease in Providence, and I’ll be working partially remote, and then partially in Boston.
