The first thing Kaylee Grant did when she moved to Yellowknife was find a
hockey team.
The operating engineer took a one-year term to gain experience in her
industry. Twelve years later, she’s still in the Northwest Territories and
hockey has been a reason why she calls it home.
“You gravitate to what you know, and I knew sports,” Grant says. “When you
join a sport, you instantly have 17 friends and a group where you feel
accepted through a common goal and interest. When I moved to the North, I
didn’t know how else to meet friends, so I went to the rink right away.”
Grant grew up around the rink in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The community was
also a hockey hotbed, supporting its Junior A, Junior B and university
teams. Being around that passion and community made hockey an important part
of her life.
“Playing hockey is what we did,” Grant says. “The community rallied behind
our teams and the rinks were full, the atmosphere was great, and hockey was
so prominent.”
She played minor hockey in Nova Scotia before moving to Newfoundland and
Labrador to play at Memorial University. At 23 years old, she made the move
to Yellowknife and knew she would find her community inside a rink.
“I find that the easiest thing to do when you come to a new place to meet
people is through sport,” she says. “With joining a hockey team, I was
already creating a group of people that were like-minded in interests and
similar age. Plus, there are so many opportunities in the North to grow as
coaches, players and mentors that have been so helpful.”
Grant’s love for the game wasn’t just as a player—she expanded her knowledge
by getting into coaching while in Nova Scotia. She started as an off-ice
coordinator with the Antigonish Bulldogs women’s under-18 team.
She did her Coach Development 1 training before getting her High Performance
1 training and evaluation certification. She continued to pursue additional
coaching certification and training over the years to educate herself and
give back to her community.
“I think seeing the female game continuously grow and develop that keeps me
interested,” Grant says. “I love to see the progress in my players. I love
seeing these players grow and adapt as individuals. Seeing them get involved
in coaching is the coolest part.”
Her coaching philosophy is to develop a player’s passion for the game, be a
role model and create an environment that is positive for women and girls.
Coaching and mentoring young girls are important to Grant, and she saw that
path was through high-level opportunities, particularly by becoming a
facilitator to drive more players into the coaching route. She has been
working with Hockey North and the Hockey Canada Women Master Coach Developer
program, which is focused on removing barriers to coaching education for
women.
“Kaylee has volunteered at pretty much every level and she’s getting more
involved with training coaches and being a clinician, which is an amazing
progression for her,” says Kyle Kugler, executive director of Hockey North
and a close friend of Grant. “She’s a great ambassador for hockey by giving
back to other coaches through her experiences and helping with their
development.”
Through being a volunteer coach, Grant has been able to experience some
highlights with her teams, including as head coach for the Arctic Winter
Games and Canada Winter Games, and as an assistant coach for Team North at
the National Aboriginal Hockey Championship.
“Hockey North has given me so many opportunities and having that support has
impacted me as a coach,” Grant says. “I enjoyed every year with those
territorial teams and those experiences are a very big reason why I stay
here – the coaching opportunities and knowing that we continually have room
to grow.”
Another event that Grant was a key volunteer for was the inaugural
One For All festival held in Yellowknife in February. It was a four-day event for women
and girls from across the N.W.T. and Nunavut that included goaltending
clinics, on-ice scrimmages and other off-ice experiences. The event was
launched in partnership with Hockey Canada and Hockey North to celebrate the
sport and grow grassroots hockey in the North.
“Kaylee is one of our co-leads in the North, and when we set out to deliver
this programming in Yellowknife, it was a no-brainer that she would be
involved. And typical Kaylee, she just runs with a task and completely owns
it,” says Katie Greenway, manager of women’s and girls’ hockey with Hockey
Canada. “To have champions like Kaylee that dedicate themselves to their
community and sport is so important.”
Giving back through coaching is just what Grant does—it’s like a hobby for
her and she does it for others and to see more women in the sport, not for
what it could bring to her.
“I’ve known Kaylee for a few years now and she has so much on her plate, but
she never says no,” Greenway says. “She doesn’t do it for the accolades, but
out of the goodness of her heart with a smile on her face. She’s fantastic
and is really impacting everyone that she comes across.”
Grant’s impact on hockey in the North has been felt by many of the girls she
has coached, mentored and played with over the past 12 years, but it’s the
bigger picture that is most important to her.
“I’m not going to say that myself, individually, has drastically impacted
female hockey in the North. I think I am a very small portion of what’s been
going on in the North in the last 10 years,” Grant says. “I would like to
think that I have helped develop more female coaches and I’ve been a good
role model. I think if I have impacted hockey in the North, its pushing
players to want to coach a little bit, but it’s a collective—everyone has
left their mark on the female game.”
For Kugler, as the lone administrator for Hockey North, having volunteers
like Kaylee is so critical to the work and development of hockey players.
“I think volunteers are essential for the delivery of anything in small
communities in the North,” he says. “[Kaylee] takes on more than we even
realize. Coaches have a huge influence on teams and athletes and she’s a
positive role model and advocate for female hockey. She’s selfless with her
time and she’s just an awesome person.”
Interested in becoming a coach? Visit HockeyCanada.ca/Coaching, or contact your local hockey association or Hockey Canada Member for
more information.