rica L. Ayala sits down with Katie Fitzgerald — 2018 Isobel Cup Champion with the Metropolitan Riveters, now a graduate student in digital communications and media arts at DePaul University — to talk about life after professional hockey, the art of documentary filmmaking, and what it meant to be part of a pivotal moment in women’s hockey history.
Katie’s short documentary film
Blessed Art Thou Among Women premiered at the Dare to Dream Film Festival in Chicago — and won the audience choice award. The film tells the story of her great-aunt Betty, a former nun whose hidden life Katie discovered at a family funeral in 2022. It’s a film about family lore, generational freedom, and the things women weren’t allowed to be.
Then: Katie is in the early stages of a documentary series about the Metropolitan Riveters — interviewing Alexa Grushow and Kim Sass about what it was actually like to leave college, move across the country, and try to build a professional women’s hockey league from the ground up.
The ice bath made from a horse trough. The lease signed on the hood of a car in Newark. The year that changed everything. And the decision in 2019 that she knew she’d never personally benefit from — but made anyway.
PLUS: new PWHL rules for Season 4, including the high-sticking change, the overtime penalty shot option, and the body checking evolution. Katie reacts as a former goaltender — and it’s exactly what you’d expect.
0:00 — Intro: Katie Fitzgerald, Isobel Cup champion, filmmaker, DePaul grad student
3:00 — How storytelling has always been part of Katie’s identity — from goalie masks to documentary film
6:00 —
Blessed Art Thou Among Women: the story of great-aunt Betty, the secret revealed at a funeral, and what the film is really about
13:00 — The editing process: what ended up on the cutting room floor and what took the longest to get right
18:00 — Where to watch it: the DVD-menu website Katie is building, and a possible feature-length expansion
23:00 — The Metropolitan Riveters documentary series: the interviews, the stories, and what Katie wants the ending note to be
30:00 — 2019 and “the great divorce of women’s hockey” — why Katie made the decision she made and what it feels like now
35:00 — Working for the PWHL: what her role in e-commerce and merchandising actually looks like
38:00 — New PWHL rules for Season 4: high-sticking, overtime penalty shots, and body checking — a former goalie reacts
44:00 — Women’s Worlds opens today in Denmark — and Hilary Knight is somehow still not retired
At Even Strength is a PWHL-focused podcast from Black Rosie Media, hosted by Erica L. Ayala and Rachel Donner. New episodes drop on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Get your weekly women’s hockey fix with Erica L. Ayala and Rachel Donner. They will cover the top news in the PWHL, NCAA, and international women’s ice hockey.