“I think those three months were great for me to kind of come to terms with making a pivot that I had not anticipated,” Turner said. “It was one of the things that really got me through a difficult experience down at basic training.”

A letter from Marmer arrived at a crucial time. In it, Marmer detailed for Turner all the decisions she had made in her first few months with the PWHL: staff hirings, the first few player signings and draft decisions, and the identity she wanted to create for her team.

“Joining the army at the ripe age of 29 is not an easy experience,” Turner said. “You’re used to your autonomy. And when she sent that to me, I was like, ‘This is amazing. I’m so excited.’ It reminded me of a world in which I had some freedom.”

Marmer’s goal in writing the letter wasn’t necessarily to convince her friend to make a career change, though that was part of it. Mainly, she wanted someone to share in her excitement about the future of women’s hockey.

“I didn’t know at the time how important [the letter] was to her,” Marmer said. “I would have written her more if I had known.”

After three months of mulling it over, Turner returned from basic training ready to take the leap.

She talked it through with her wife, Alexis, and left her stable job at PwC to become Marmer’s assistant general manager with PWHL Boston (now the Boston Fleet), a position she held through the league’s first two seasons while remaining an active member of the Army National Guard.

When the league announced it would expand to Seattle and Vancouver, PWHL executives asked Marmer and the five other general managers if there was anyone they would recommend to take the reins for the new teams. In Marmer’s mind, Turner was not only the obvious choice, but the only choice.

“They were like ‘Great, glad you said that, because we were going to talk to her anyway,’ ” Marmer said.

Within weeks, Turner was named the inaugural GM of PWHL Seattle — a step Marmer said felt inevitable after playing and working with Turner for the better part of a decade.

“I couldn’t be more excited for her,” Marmer said. “She’s going to do a phenomenal job. She’s incredibly bright, she’s organized, she’s a great leader. She’s culture driven. She’s going to have something really special in Seattle.”

For years, when a young Marmer got in the car after youth hockey games and tryouts, she and her father broke down her performance before the conversation inevitably turned to his favorite player to watch: No. 12 on the New Hampshire team, Meghan Turner.

Marmer couldn’t fault her father for that. Turner, with quiet confidence and undeniable skill, was the young Marmer’s favorite player to watch, too.

Turner was one of the best players in her age group in New Hampshire, and Marmer was performing similarly in Vermont, so their paths crossed regularly on the youth hockey circuit. They each attended top boarding schools — Marmer at Loomis Chaffee in Connecticut and Turner at Philips Exeter in New Hampshire — before their paths crossed again at Quinnipiac University.

The pair became fast friends.

“Meghan became such a great hockey player because she believed in herself in a different way than I did,” Marmer said. “The thought of embarrassing herself wasn’t something that stopped her from trying to be great.”

Turner worked her way up to play on the top line and served as an assistant captain for the Bobcats. She earned her B.A. and M.B.A. in four years, then began a career in consulting.

On top of working 55 hours per week at PwC, Turner played professional hockey, first for the CWHL’s Worcester Blades and later the PWHPA. She’d often leave her house at 7 a.m., work a full day before heading to practice, then return home around 10 p.m. and keep working until late into the night.

But after a few years, the game started getting faster, her responsibilities at work and with her family grew, and Turner couldn’t keep up. She hung up her skates in 2022.

Around the same time, Marmer, who had just taken a job in scouting and player development for the Bruins, came to live with Turner and her wife. The timing was serendipitous, and the pair picked up right where they had left off at Quinnipiac — staying up late into the night to talk about the game they both loved.

“I was happy to be talking hockey again, and it was cool to be a bit of a fly on the wall and learn from her how the player development world works in the NHL,” Turner said.

Those conversations were equally enlightening for Marmer.

“I always thought in those moments, ‘You should be doing this,’ ” Marmer said.

That thought lingered in the back of Marmer’s mind throughout the year she worked with the Bruins, and in 2023, while she weighed the decision to jump ship to an upstart league, a mentor within the Bruins organization posed a question:

It’s a tough job, and you can’t go at it alone, so who are you going to take with you who you trust with your life?

“Meghan’s name immediately popped into my head,” she said. “There was no other option.”

Emma Healy can be reached at emma.healy@globe.com or on X @ByEmmaHealy.

Colleges Are Now Allowed to Pay NCAA Athletes Directly After Judge Approves Settlement

The NCAA’s amateurism model has officially been reshaped.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken gave final approval to a $2.8 billion settlement in the House v. NCAA case, marking a monumental turning point in college sports history.

Starting July 1, NCAA Division I schools will be permitted to compensate athletes directly, forever altering the dynamic between collegiate athletics and the business of sports.

For the first time, athletes will receive direct payments from their schools.

RELATED | Top 20 College Athletes With The Highest NIL Valuations

RELATED | Top 20 Female College Athletes With The Highest NIL Valuations

These funds are guided by a salary cap, initially set at $20.5 million per school, which will increase over the next decade.

This cap represents 22% of total revenue from sources such as ticket sales, broadcasting, and sponsorships.

Most of these funds will likely go to sports that generate the most revenue, including football and basketball, though schools will have flexibility in how they allocate this money.

Beyond paying current athletes, the settlement includes a substantial $2.8 billion damages pool to compensate former athletes who played from 2016 to 2024 and were ineligible for name, image, and likeness (NIL) earnings during their careers.

The settlement not only allows schools to pay athletes but also introduces new structures to monitor and enforce these payments.

The College Sports Commission, a new enforcement body, will oversee compliance, ensure salary caps are respected, and review NIL contracts for fairness.

Deloitte will manage an NIL clearinghouse to vet endorsement deals and curb inappropriate financial arrangements, such as booster-backed contracts designed to bypass team salary caps.

This decision has brought college sports into what some are calling a “professionalized framework.”

For decades, athletes were restricted to scholarships and modest benefits while schools raked in billions from game-related revenues.

Now, student-athletes will receive a share of these profits, aligning their compensation more directly with the value they generate for their institutions.

NCAA President Charlie Baker praised the decision, calling it:

“a huge step forward for college sports.”

However, this isn’t the end of the transformation.

The move sets the stage for further discussions around creating a more sustainable regulatory structure, potentially involving federal legislation to address outstanding legal challenges.

While historic, the agreement isn’t without obstacles.

The introduction of salary caps and formal compensation frameworks may invite future lawsuits, especially around Title IX compliance and the fairness of enforcement practices.

Additionally, some worry the changes will widen the divide between wealthy programs and smaller schools that may struggle to meet financial expectations.

The settlement also raises questions about the future role of NIL collectives, as schools begin to manage payments in-house.

Critics argue that overly stringent regulation of NIL deals could spark further litigation.

The NCAA settlement is a groundbreaking achievement, promising to improve athletes’ lives while modernizing an outdated system.

However, as college sports leadership navigates this uncharted territory, the coming years will undoubtedly present additional tests and opportunities for reform.

For now, though, athletes and advocates alike can celebrate the long-awaited recognition of their contributions to the multi-billion-dollar industry of college sports.

Here are five top stories you may have missed this week.

Downtown Athens hosts annual PrideFest

Hundreds gathered downtown for Athens’ annual PrideFest that was held on Saturday. The event was held to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in Athens. Attendees from all over the state visited vendors, booths and shows before watching the large parade that began at 5 p.m. PrideFest, originally scheduled to run till 10 p.m., ended early in the evening due to inclement weather. 

Read more about PrideFest here.  

UGA 2025 football schedule times announced

The University of Georgia released its full 2025 football season schedule. The schedule sees the Bulldogs playing in seven home games, three away games and two neutral site games. 

The Bulldogs will face off against Marshall at Sanford Stadium in the team’s season opener on Aug. 30 at 3:30 p.m. 

Read more about the schedule release here.

Athens advocate Tim Denson announces campaign for ACC mayor

Tim Denson, advocate and public servant, announced his campaign for Athens-Clarke County mayor. Denson previously served as District 5 commissioner from 2019 to 2022 and was former president and organization coordinator of the advocacy group Athens for Everyone.

The Athens-Clarke County mayoral election is in May 2026.

Read more about Denson’s campaign announcement here. 

Rock Lobsters name Garrett Rutledge as new head coach

The Athens Rock Lobsters announced that Garret Rutledge will be the team’s new general manager of hockey operations and head coach for next season. Rutledge will replace Steve Martinson who announced his departure to return to the Allen Americans of the ECHL.

Rutledge was previously named the 2023 Federal Prospects Hockey League Coach of the Year after leading the Carolina Thunderbirds to a division title. 

Read more about Rutledge’s hire here and an in-depth interview with Rutledge here. 

Benjamin Ayers appointed UGA provost following S. Jack Hu’s departure

Benjamin Ayers, dean of the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business, will become the University of Georgia’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, UGA President Jere W. Morehead announced on May 29.

Ayers will fill the position previously held by S. Jack Hu who stepped down to become chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. 

Read more about Ayers’ appointment here.

Nighthawks’ Summer Stevens caps soccer career in style

Published 7:13 am Monday, June 9, 2025