Just a few years ago, Laurence Beaulieu would never have seen herself as a full-time hockey coach.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Montreal – playing five years with the Carabins and winning a U SPORTS national title in 2016 – and then a specialized graduate diploma (DESS) in sports management from HEC Montreal, the defenceman joined the Canadiennes de Montréal of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) in 2017.

She spent only one season with the Canadiennes, calling it a career at the age of 26 to become a coach.

“It was more or less by chance,” says Beaulieu, the national winner of the BFL Female Coach of the Year in the Competitive category. “I started [coaching] when I was 16. From then until my year with the Canadiennes, I was a summer coach at the AAA level. I was a private coach for both boys and girls, but I never really thought about coaching a full season. I was so overwhelmed with what I was doing as an athlete that I never thought there would be a next step.”

Beaulieu, 30, got a full-time job as a player development assistant with Hockey Quebec, but to do so, she had to give up her on-ice career. The benefits, though, were obvious.

“My work at Hockey Quebec gave me the opportunity to learn more about development,” says the Stoneham, Que., native. “Someone from the Richelieu region approached me because he really wanted to manage a team with a woman. I don’t know how he found me or what contact it was, but it was the father of a player I had met, and he said that he really wanted to run the [Cégep André-Laurendeau] team with me. I told him I wanted to be an assistant, but nothing more. Then I found out that I liked it more than I thought I would.”

The following year, Beaulieu became the head coach of the Remparts du Richelieu U18 AAA team in addition to continuing her position as assistant coach with Cégep André-Laurendeau.

“I wasn’t surprised that I liked coaching, but that I liked it so much. [I liked that] you do it all year long, on weekends, in the evenings... I wanted to do it more than two months a year,” she says.

Beaulieu really enjoys teaching the kids. The fact her players have not yet peaked allows her to maximize the role she plays in their development.

“Those players still have fun in everything they do,” she says. “They really appreciate the investment you make and the time you take for them. That’s something I really like about this age group. They are passionate and still have plenty of goals to achieve at the college or national levels. It’s an age group that is full of goals and potential.”

Still, it’s very important to have fun on the ice at that age. While Beaulieu is well aware of this, she also believes that it is possible to have fun and push yourself at the same time.

“I want the girls to like to surpass themselves while knowing that it’s always necessary to have fun," explains Beaulieu, who served as defence coach with the Titans du Cégep Limoilou last season. “It’s possible to have fun while working 100% all the time. If you go out on the ice every day and you love what you do, you will improve. At the end of the year, those girls come to me for more feedback, to watch more videos. It’s a teachable mentality and the girls want to get more. In the end, it works!”

It’s clear the young coach is passionate about her sport, whether she was on the ice or behind the bench.

But nowhere is that passion more evident than when she is able to share it with others.

“I’m very proud when I see a player’s passion grow over the course of the year," Beaulieu says. “She already loved hockey, but she didn’t realize how much she loved it for details that she probably wasn’t aware of at first. As time goes on, as she practices things, she asks for even more feedback and information. I’m very proud of being able to pass it on; it’s my greatest accomplishment even if it’s not really mine. It takes an athlete who is willing to do it to make it there, but it’s something I really enjoy doing.”

After coaching at the college and U18 AAA levels, Beaulieu does not intend to stop there. Even if there is no rush, she is starting to think about the next steps she could take.

“Obviously, I want to get as high as I can, but I think there are steps to take before that,” she says. Right now, I am in Limoilou and I am really proud of what I am doing. Maybe my next step would be to join Team Quebec at the provincial level. That’s the next step I want to take, but I’m not setting any limits. We’ll see where it takes me.”

There’s purpose behind the name of Amy Doerksen’s hockey camp.

The inaugural event, held in early June in Brandon, Man., was a smashing success and included over 130 young girls, being taught on-ice skills by 12 coaches with an array of experience, those from the grassroots level of the game right up to elite AAA club hockey.

The title of the camp?

The Fierce Female Hockey Camp.

Doerksen, the national winner of the 2022 BFL Female Coach of the Year Award in the Community category, believes in being fierce. She says that’s how women’s hockey is going to break down barriers, overcome hurdles and progress to the status that it deserves.

“It blew me away, the comments that I have received from parents of players who attended, from coaches who participated,” says Doerksen, a lifelong hockey player, longtime coach and extreme advocate for the women’s game. “A quote I got from an under-18 player, who perfectly summarizes exactly the reason why I created this camp … she won a provincial championship this season, she’s playing at the highest level that a girl can play at in minor hockey in Manitoba, and she still had people saying ‘It doesn’t count, you play girls’ hockey.’

“That’s not OK. They need to feel fierce; they need to feel amazing.”

Doerksen speaks from experience. Like many women in the game, she has faced challenges to be heard and seen, challenges that many men simply don’t have to deal with. As a kid, she played ringette – “Girls didn’t play hockey and we were directed into the sport of ringette” – but fell in love with hockey during her junior high school years. Those days in Manitoba, there were few women’s hockey players and Doerksen remembers at age 12 getting dressed for practices next to 16- and 17-year-olds.

Doerksen would continue to excel in hockey over the years and ended up playing for the University of Manitoba. After her days with the Bisons, Doerksen headed to Ryerson University in Toronto (where the talented multi-sport athlete played soccer for the Rams) and, post graduation, lived in Kenora, Ont. It is there when she first entered the coaching ranks with a local high school team.

Doerksen, who is a mom to three and stepmom to one, is a published author of children’s books. On her blog, which can be found at AmyDoerksen.com, she lists five loves: family, feminism, hockey, Canada’s north and books.

She lived in Yellowknife, N.W.T., for just under five years and that time made a lasting impression on Doerksen.

“I’m appreciative of how much the north invested in developing female coaches,” says Doerksen. “I think the rest of Canada can learn a lot from the progressive views of the north. They’re ahead of the game.”

Doerksen has held various coaching and leadership positions in hockey, starting as an assistant coach with the Beaver Brae Broncos high school team in Kenora from 2001-03. She was president of the Yellowknife Women’s Hockey League from 2007-11 and, during her time up north, was also assistant coach of the Northwest Territories girls’ team for the Arctic Winter Games.

This season, Doerksen could be seen on the ice at the grassroots level with an under-7 team and also with high-performance athletes on the Brandon Wheat Kings female U15 club.

Off the ice, Doerksen has also been part of hockey boards and was the U7 division director with Hockey Brandon from 2020-22. Her full list of teams, accomplishments and honours is extremely impressive and too long to list.

But there’s more work to be done. Too many times, Doerksen has been the lone woman on the ice, the lone woman in the hockey boardroom that is still dominated by men. While she has seen progress over the past 20 years of her involvement as a coach and leader, Doerksen says that progress should be happening at a much quicker rate.

“I started crying on the call,” she says when asked about her reaction to being named a BFL Female Coach of the Year. “It was the day after my hockey camp and I was really a hot mess from the experience. I was completely overwhelmed with what an amazing weekend it was. I’m grateful. I’m getting emotional right now because it’s incredible. As women, we need to seek … it’s good to stand up and say ‘Hey, I am good at this, this is something that I’m proud of’. There is that validation piece.

“The reason I get emotional is because I have faced a lot of struggles where I don’t feel that people really have always got the value that I can add. When you’re always coming up against that wall, it feels wonderful to have an organization like Hockey Canada say, ‘Hey we see you and we see what you’re doing.’”

Great leaders tend to brush off admiration, recognition and the spotlight. They immediately give credit to others who have helped them along the way.

That’s Sarah Hilworth.

One of the top coaches in Canadian university hockey, Hilworth led the University of New Brunswick (UNB) women’s team to the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) championship in 2021-22, less than five years after UNB’s women’s hockey program was reinstated into AUS.

For her work, Hilworth was named the national winner of the 2022 BFL Female Coach of the Year Award in the High Performance category. The honour comes on the heels of Hilworth being named AUS Coach of the Year.

“I was floored, I couldn’t even believe it,” the Vancouver native says of the BFL CANADA award. “I was honoured just to be nominated and when they told me I was the recipient … it’s hard to accept something where I know there are so many people involved that, truly, this goes out to them.

“It’s nice to represent something that we have created here in Fredericton that is so special to me and so many people. I’m very proud of everything that our organization has done. I don’t think that I can take full credit because there are so many people who have helped me get to where we are.”

Hockey fans will know the Hilworth name from her playing days. She was a top contributor with the University of Alberta during her five years playing for that program, registering 100 points in her 100-game career. The decorated career came to an abrupt end during Hilworth’s fifth season when she blocked a shot, the puck shattering her knee cap.

There’s no doubt Hilworth was disappointed, as the elite athlete had contracts lined up with plans to head to Europe to play professionally. But she didn’t have too much time to dwell on that as the coaching bug took over.

The transition from player to coach was a pretty natural one, given Hilworth’s passion and knowledge of the game.

“To think back, that kid from inner-city Vancouver, growing up and adoring the sport … I look back and I was always an athlete but I always think I was a coach first. I was the only person in my class playing hockey and only girl playing sports,” says Hilworth. “I remember getting in trouble from my teachers in Grade 3 because I would be drawing up drills in my book and doing up little sign-up sheets and I would be teaching the girls in my class how to play basketball or soccer or any kind of sport. I needed people to play with and I would have these little clinics set up. That’s kind of how my mind was when I was little. It just translated into high school and I started helping coach teams there too.

“I just love it. I love helping people and seeing people enjoy being athletic, whether it’s hockey, baseball, soccer or whatever. The power of sport is pretty incredible.”

She credits Howie Draper for her move into the university coaching ranks. Draper, the long-time University of Alberta head coach who recently led Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team to gold at the 2022 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship, was Hilworth’s head coach from 2008-13.

Hilworth jokes that Draper may have felt bad for her but, in reality, Draper could see the passion and knowledge Hilworth had. He offered her a chance to be an assistant coach on his staff, a role Hilworth held for two seasons before taking a head coaching position at Olds College in Alberta. Hilworth left Olds after two seasons for the opportunity to lead the UNB program.

Today, Hilworth says she’s living the dream. Hockey has given her the opportunity to see the country and the world, has been the reason she went from one coast to another and is pretty much the reason for every aspect of her life.

“It’s given me everything. I’ve never not been an athlete. I’ve never not loved the game,” she says. “It’s something that has given me discipline, taught me hard work, given me goals; some of the best times of my life, some of the worst times of my life. It’s given me my family, my friends. The people that I’ve met along the way are some of the most incredible people. My student-athletes, they’re all family to me. There are so many personal things the game has taught me but the family and people that I’ve met along the way are the people I love and enjoy and I’m so grateful and truly … I’m so blessed.”

Hilworth is thrilled at the investment that UNB has made into its women’s hockey program. She thinks the state of the game is at an all-time high and points to the incredible talent displayed during the recent U18 women’s worlds. Ever the advocate, though, Hilworth says there’s more to be done.

“I would like to see more women in our game. There are a lot of incredible women in our game already and coaching, and a lot of them that I look up to,” she says. “We need to continue to see that investment made into women coaching women. I want to see more equality in terms of how ice is being allocated in female programs versus male programs and how communities are rallying behind their young female hockey players. That’s still something that is missing in our game.”

While Canada’s National Women’s Team got on the ice for the first time at training camp last month, more than 6,100 people involved in hockey – players, coaches and parents – participated in the Pond to Podium Development Series.

Participants at all levels of the game connected directly with national team athletes and staff through 16 webinars that included skills sessions, holistic hockey training sessions, panel discussions and We Are Coaches clinics led by Hockey Canada women master coach developers.

“The participation of girls and women at all levels of hockey elevates our game and creates a thriving sport system,” says Teal Gove, manager of hockey development with Hockey Canada. “We hope the Pond to Podium Development Series encouraged all participants, in whatever their role, to strive for their personal podium so they can continue to gain all of the benefits hockey has to offer along the way.”

What did the participants take away from Pond to Podium? Check out a few testimonials.

“I was excited to attend the Core Values of Leadership session that was run by Gina Kingsbury. There were two areas that I felt made me better understand how I can become a better leader for my teammates. First and foremost, I learned it is important to be myself and not change who I am. Although I have the honour of wearing a letter on my jersey, I do not have to be serious all the time. I learned that it is important to have a balance with having fun with my teammates, connecting with them and being serious when I need to be. Secondly, I learned it is important to learn who my teammates are personally, to understand who they are on and off the ice. As a leader, it is important to create friendship and trust with your teammates, to ensure they feel comfortable talking to me. The session has given me a different perspective of what leadership is and how I can apply what I have learned to be a better leader, a better athlete and a better student.”

-- Ava Irwin, player (Burlington Girls Hockey Club)

“In the never-ending pursuit of being their best, highly-motivated coaches (from house league to national teams) seek information, advice and feedback. Ideally, you want to get those things from people with outstanding credentials and the right values. Hockey Canada’s Pond to Podium Development Series brought the best in girls and women’s hockey to our computer/phone screen. From Tara Watchorn’s A, B, Cs of playing defence to Howie Draper’s four Fs (fun, fast, fight, family) to Kori Cheverie and Vicky Sunohara addressing the importance of making the game enjoyable for their players, Pond to Podium is informative, insightful and interactive.”

-- Steve McAllister, coach (Kincardine Minor Hockey Association)

“As a parent of a young girl, it was inspirational to hear what leaders at the highest levels, such as Gina Kingsbury and Teal Gove, believe in. Having not been on the ice with her teammates during the pandemic, these webinars reinvigorated my daughter's passion for hockey and reminded her why she loves the game. The advice she received from two tremendous role models advanced her knowledge of the game, which will in turn motivate her and her team when they return to the ice.”

-- Melina Ducharme, parent (Burlington Girls Hockey Club)

“Watching the Pond to Podium sessions became a family affair! My U18 daughter (a defenceman), my U15 son (a goaltender) and I all thoroughly enjoyed the webinars. They were well-organized with very knowledgeable presenters who covered a wide range of useful teaching points and concepts that can be easily incorporated into practices or into a player’s regimen. I especially enjoyed Tara Watchorn’s concept of communicating the purpose of drills so players understand why and can more readily internalize the lesson (Developing Defence); Jessica Campbell’s philosophy of continuous development of skating skills being essential for all players to get a leg up in the game (Specialized Skating Skills); Gord Woodhall’s identification of the foundation of stance in everything a goalie does (Goaltending); and Paula McQuaid’s assertion that confidence and mental toughness are learned skills that can be improved through understanding what one can control, reframing situations positively and managing one’s emotions (Mental Training). A wealth of great ideas and lessons for players and coaches to take their game to the next level!”

-- Jeff Partrick, coach (Gloucester-Cumberland Girls Hockey Association)

“I thoroughly enjoyed the We Are Coaches programming during the Pond to Podium series. I have taken coach courses in the past, but this was my first experience in an all-women coaching program geared toward coaching women. I took so much more away from this than I have in previous courses. It made me think about things that I hadn’t thought of, and the group dynamic created an atmosphere that allowed for collaboration between coaches across our country. It was motivating, inspiring and what I think is needed to get more women involved in coaching and, ultimately, to continue to grow the women’s game. Thank you so much for this opportunity!”

-- Kristy Provost, coach (Nampa Minor Hockey Association)

“The broad scope and variety of the Pond to Podium topics was impressive. Athletes, coaches and parents could all learn from the various sessions. For our athletes to hear from women at the highest levels speaking openly and honestly about their experience, the ups and downs they have gone through, was very impactful. I love that the focus for the players was off the ice (mental, leadership and off-ice workouts) and all were topics within their control to take ownership of and work on to improve. The sessions were inspiring to those of us who love the game, who are proud to be a part of Hockey Canada and who are driven to keep getting better.”

-- Ryan Essex, coach (Central York Girls Hockey Association)

Would you like to be kept in the know regarding the next Pond to Podium Development Series? Register below to receive more information as it becomes available.

Like so many other great ideas in 2020, the genesis of the Women in Sport Speaker Series came from finding ways to pass the time at home during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While some Canadians binge-watched their favourite shows or read a good book, Amy de Bree set about to use her newfound free time in a more fulfilling way.

“I spent a lot of time watching webinar series and just really trying to find a way to use the time to better myself, both as an individual and as a leader and as a coach,” she says. “And what I noticed was that as I watched all of these webinars, the female voices were really missing.

“I knew that there were some amazing women doing some great things in coaching and in really all aspects of sport from the research side to the business side. And so I wanted to give an opportunity for these women to actually have a voice.”

De Bree is herself one of those amazing women doing some great things in coaching. In addition to her teaching position at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in Vancouver, she is video coordinator for the women’s hockey team at the University of British Columbia, and coaches in the Vancouver Thunderbirds Minor Hockey Association and Vancouver Female Ice Hockey Association.

Add in her time with the B.C. Hockey provincial program, which has included roles as assistant coach at the 2019 National Women’s Under-18 Championship and as head coach at the 2017 National Aboriginal Hockey Championships, along with a handful of provincial camps, and de Bree spends an awful lot of time behind the bench.

“I truly enjoy the game,” she says of why she coaches. “I enjoy approaching the game from different ways. But even more than that, I really just enjoy working with kids. I enjoy helping them reach their potential, whatever that avenue may be. As a teacher, I get to do that every day. And as a coach, we get a different angle to that.”

With her passion and her experience, it was little surprise – except to de Bree herself, who says she was shocked to get a call from Team Canada legend Cassie Campbell-Pascall – that she was selected as the B.C. winner of the BFL Female Coach of the Year Award in the high performance category.

While the national recognition was great, it was the $1,000 monetary prize that pushed de Bree to make her seminar idea a reality and move on to the next step – putting together a list of speakers.

She went to work reaching out to her contacts in the sports world, working connections in some cases and just relying on blind ambition in others.

“A lot of vulnerability, and just sending out emails to women and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we're doing. This is why we're doing it. We would love if you would participate.’ It was just a great experience of women helping women and bringing together some amazing voices.”

In the end, de Bree gathered 18 women across 10 different presentations for the Women in Sport Speaker Series, which ran virtually from July 20-24. The line-up included a Q&A with National Women’s Team alumna Vicky Sunohara, and sessions on being a Black female coach, consent culture, the advancement of women in coaching and loving your body as a female athlete, among others.

All of the Women in Sport Speaker Series seminars are available on the official website. 

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the push has already begun towards the 2021 series.

“It was fantastic to hear from the other women who tuned in and watched, and even the different men,” de Bree says. “One of our top referees in the area, he watched all of the talks and it was fantastic to see the different people engaging and kind of thinking through topics and just expanding their way of thinking.”

De Bree is working closely with Shiayli Toni, a fifth-year forward on the UBC women’s team who led the Championing Consent Culture webinar, to push forward and keep the conversation going.

A call went out in late August through social media, and nominations are being accepted for women who are making a difference in sports. Every month, one deserving woman will be celebrated on Twitter and Instagram.

For de Bree, the return of autumn means a return to the rink, albeit in a new-look hockey world thanks to the pandemic. While she navigates her way through another season behind the bench, she has a little bit of advice for girls and women who want to follow her path.

“One of the biggest hurdles that women have in getting into coaching is the time commitment. It can be really tough. And as women, when we come out of college or we come out of the end of our [playing] careers, we're still trying to financially set ourselves up. So find a role where you can start to get your feet wet and then build out that commitment. As soon as you make your name for yourself, you start to be able to find those roles where you do get financially compensated, so it makes it a lot easier to balance the work and life, and still be able to coach and give back to the game.”

The focus for Stéphanie Grenier has always been on getting more girls involved in hockey.

The mother of three has worn multiple hats for the Association hockey féminin vallée de Gatineau (AHFVG), including coach, registrar and recruiter, and her efforts earned her the BFL Female Coach of the Year Award (Community) for Quebec.

“It was a big surprise to me. I didn’t know that my association nominated me and put my name forward for the award,” says Grenier. “I was happy that my work was recognized over the years.”

The 40-year-old didn’t play the game growing up, got on the ice in her adult years and was quick to get involved when she signed up two of her daughters to play with the AHFVG.

She didn’t view herself as a “real hockey player,” but after being asked to help with her then four-year-old daughter’s team, Grenier has never stopped working with teams across the association.

“With the kids being so young they needed more coaches on the ice to help, and since I played hockey here and there, I decided to jump in and help,” she said. “The person in charge was happy to have women on the ice to set an example for the younger girls.”

Two years later, Grenier took over the Initiation (now Timbits U7) program for the AHFVG. For the past seven years she has been an assistant coach with her middle daughter’s team, supports her oldest daughter’s team, and is the head coach for her youngest daughter’s team.

Phew. That’s a lot of hockey.

On her nomination form, Sonia Bertrand, president of the AHFVG, said that Grenier is a positive role model for young girls. As the registrar and recruiter, she works hard to attract as many players as possible to promote and grow the game in Gatineau.

“I hope through the next few years, we can get more women involved with hockey. It is nice for the girls to have women on the ice with them and to have examples of hockey players in their community,” Grenier says. “It will give them a sense that they too can play university hockey or coach later in life.”

Not only does Grenier dedicate a lot of her time in recruiting girls to join the AHFVG, but she also actively looks for mothers to get involved with coaching their young daughters.

“When I learn that a mom used to play hockey when she was younger, I always try to get them involved,” she says. “I feel like some women don’t think they are good enough or whatever, but as soon as they get involved, they remember how much they enjoy being on the ice and usually stay involved.”

According to Bertrand, Grenier’s cheerfulness, energy and dedication represent all the qualities a coach must possess to help athletes progress along the path of life.

Even in the middle of a challenging season with few wins, Grenier was focused on the long-term development and little wins of each player.

“I love to see the improvements of the girls throughout the season,” she says. “I love to see them starting out and almost not being able to skate, and then at the end of the season, they make a stop – it is just so great to see,” she said. “I love being involved and seeing the girls smiling and them seeing what they are capable of doing.”

Life is busy at the rink for Grenier and her three daughters, but she wants to help grow the game in Gatineau.

“It is fun watching these girls come out of their shells as they play. It is great to see them make friends and keep playing year after year,” she says. “Hopefully, we can continue to grow our association.”

Home is where the heart is for Katie-Lynn Cummiskey, and it’s why she gives back to Pownal Minor Hockey.

It’s also a big reason why the 24-year-old took home the BFL Female Coach of the Year Award (Community) for Prince Edward Island.

“I was shocked,” says Cummiskey. “This will motivate me to continue to coach.”

Cummiskey has been coaching since she was 15. Last season she was behind the bench as head coach of the female Bantam A (now U15) Pownal Red Devils, as well as assisting with the NHL/NHLPA First Shift program.

“My dad was a big influence on me and thought it was a good thing to give back to the community,” she says. “Once I stepped on the ice the first time as a coach, I knew it was something that I wanted to continue.”

Cummiskey played hockey throughout her childhood with Pownal Minor Hockey and joined the women’s team at Holland College as she studied to become a kinesiologist.

She stepped away from coaching as school demanded more from her but was able to stay involved through the First Shift program, which ensures a positive experience for new-to-hockey families at a reduced cost.

Every player receives head-to-toe Bauer equipment and learns the basics in a fun on-ice environment.

“I thought it was a great initiative in getting kids into hockey,” says Cummiskey. “This program helps teach kids the fundamentals. With many coaches on the ice, none of the kids feel left out.”

Cummiskey has coached with the program for the past five years, and it is the excitement of the kids that keeps bringing her back.

“I get too competitive and lose touch with that initial feeling of why I love the game, but seeing their joy of learning a new skill and how their faces light up when they learn the sport is special,” she says.

Cory Barlow is a mentorship coach with Pownal Minor Hockey and nominated Cummiskey for the BFL award.

“She was the first person that came to mind when I saw the nomination application,” he says. “Katie-Lynn can pick a kid out of a crowd and make it so that they enjoy the game.”

An empathic approach is how Cummiskey connects with younger athletes. Barlow shared an example from the First Shift program when a child with a learning disability wanted to try the program but was uneasy about getting on the ice.

“I asked Katie-Lynn to work her magic, and within 10 minutes, this player was on the ice with the biggest smile,” Barlow says.

Cummiskey believes that sports are for everyone, and in this particular example, she didn’t want the little girl to miss out.

“My uncle was legally blind, and he missed out on a lot of things growing up, so it was personal for me,” she says. “A lot of times, kids can be excluded from activities. It [was] important to make sure this child was included and enjoying themselves.”

Cummiskey didn’t have a woman as a coach until she was in Bantam, and it made a world of difference to her to have a fellow female behind the bench.

“[Female] personalities match up a little better. They approach the game differently, especially in the teenage years,” says Cummiskey. “I do feel that when it comes to girls' sports, it is important to have a female – even if they aren’t a head coach – to talk to on the bench.”

Great coaching has the potential to inspire an athlete to participate in sports for life. It is in that spirit Hockey Canada has established the Women Master Coach Developer (WMCD) program, an initiative equipping 30 coaching leaders with the training to develop more women in coaching from coast to coast to coast.

“We believe emphasizing and providing instruction will create engaging and welcoming training experiences, remove barriers to coaching education for women and develop role models and leaders within the hockey community,” Teal Gove, manager of hockey development at Hockey Canada, says. “By dramatically increasing the number of women in meaningful coaching roles, we will create the infrastructure needed to support the participation of girls and women in hockey.”

The delegates selected for the WMCD program, which kickstarted in July, are currently completing courses that impart knowledge on facilitating coaching programs, evaluating coaches, keeping girls in sport, making ethical decisions as a coach and what it means to be a master coach developer.

Mercedes Watson, a coach developer with the Greater Toronto Hockey League, has completed two of the five courses thus far. An associate coach with the Toronto Aeros female U18 team, Watson says the Jumpstart Keeping Girls in Sport online module contained some insightful learnings.

“It’s dialling in on girls and what motivates them,” she says. “It is showing research about why girls participate and how to keep girls going as there some interesting differences between them and boys.”

Each one of the women in the program received the contact information for the 29 other ladies undertaking the journey. Linda Massie, the head coach of Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador’s female under-16 team, is intending on taking full advantage of the engagement component of the WMCD program.

“There are some pretty amazing individuals taking this program. I look forward to speaking with them and learning from them as well.”

While a significant portion of course content is delivered via interactive webinars, the 30 delegates will also complete some in-person sessions before the completion of the program. The coaches may also choose to complete the online modules together.

Each of the coaching leaders will be required to collaborate with their member branch to deliver a We Are Coaches women-in-coaching training program in their province or territory at the end of the program to receive WCMD certification.

Taryn Baumgardt, the female hockey coordinator for Hockey Alberta, says the We Are Coaches capstone project will be an empowering experience.

“It will be an opportunity to empower coaches and leaders among women in the game. Hopefully it will help grow the number of coaches as providing young athletes with role models to look up to in the sport will be huge.”

Fort Smith, N.W.T., product Jessica Cox, the lone delegate from Canada’s northern territories, has already delivered coaching clinics and participated in a We Are Coaches program out of a desire to grow the pool of women coaching in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Cox expresses that Hockey Canada is helping her work towards fulfilling this objective through the program.

“This kind of programming speaks to the fact that the organization recognizes the importance of developing coaches across the board, the impact those coaches can have at the grassroots level all the way up to the high-performance level and that good coaching is fundamental to good coaching programs.”

Learn more about Hockey Canada’s coaching programs right here.

What occurred on March 2 in Red Deer, Alta., was so special that it called for a commemorative photo.

Carla MacLeod, Noémie Marin and Delaney Collins – all of whom have extensive experience as players and coaches in Canada’s National Women’s Program – posed outside Servus Arena to celebrate leading their respective provinces to medals at the 2019 Canada Winter Games.

MacLeod’s Team Alberta won gold on home ice with a 2-1 win over Marin’s Team Quebec. Earlier in the day, Collins led Team British Columbia to a 5-4 win over Team Ontario to capture bronze. It marked the first time at the Canada Games or National Women’s Under-18 Championship that all three medal-winning coaches were female.

Sharing the ice with MacLeod and Marin during the medal ceremony is a memory Collins will cherish for a long time.

”I believe we all value each other so much that it was a proud moment for me to have the three medals – gold, silver and bronze – be [awarded to] female head coaches who have worked for Hockey Canada.”

The ties run deep between the three: Collins and MacLeod played together at the IIHF World Women’s Championship; MacLeod and Marin shared the bench with Canada’s National Women’s Development Team in 2017-18; and Collins and Marin were assistant coaches for Canada at the 2015 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.

All hired about a year before the puck dropped, Collins, MacLeod and Marin had a clear conviction on what it would take to win in Red Deer. The biggest task for each of them was compiling a cohesive 20-player team that would realize the golden goal.

MacLeod and her coaching staff knew Alberta needed to be the hardest working team.

“We adopted that sort of approach and mentality to everything we did,” says the two-time Olympic gold medallist, who also leads the female Midget prep team at the Edge School in Calgary. “We had a slogan that said, ‘Team culture is hard work and hard work is team culture.’”

The disciplined style of play was evident during the whole tournament. Composure was another element to Alberta’s success. The players did not allow losing two of their first three games to rattle them. They just kept perfecting their process, and that work paid off with playoff wins over B.C. (2-1 in overtime in the semifinals) and Quebec.

Quebec cruised to a 5-0 record to reach the gold medal game. Marin, who coaches the women’s team at John Abbott College in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., emphasized filling the roster with resilient players. Her decision-making paid off with rallies in the first two games.

“When you’re down 2-0 seven minutes into a game, it is tough to have the resiliency to stand up and fight, and I thought our girls showed great character by coming back in those games after tough early starts,” she says.

Quebec passed its biggest test by withstanding 38 shots from Team Ontario to earn a 1-0 semifinal win.

Collins, head coach of the Fraser Valley Rush, a female Midget AAA side in B.C., put a premium on identifying players with self-compassion, which is the ability to not let mistakes keep you down.

“We definitely want girls that are hard-working and mentally are able to show a lot of compassion for themselves,” Collins says. “At the end of the day, it is a game of mistakes. So, how do you respond after making a mistake? We are looking for athletes who are open to learning and are not too critical about the mistakes in the game.”

This approach inspired her squad to play an exciting style of hockey dictated by speed and creativity, which earned the province its first women’s hockey medal at the Canada Games since 1991.

The weeks following the Games have afforded MacLeod with time to think about the significance of three female head coaches sweeping the podium. She says a moment like this could be impactful.

“Hopefully, if we are doing our job correctly, the players we are working with today may, in 10-15 years from now, want to coach that team.”

The three award-winning bench bosses all credit Hockey Canada for empowering them to believe they can be successful coaches, and to provide different opportunities along the way.

“It helps us as a coach and even just as a person in the world,” Marin says. “I think Hockey Canada is doing a tremendous job.”

MacLeod says this support is particularly instrumental in helping women in their early years of coaching.

“I have been fortunate in my career to have tremendous mentorship from all sorts of people, and I think building that up will encourage it to continue to occur, and hopefully then if young coaches face a little bit of adversity early in their career, they can manage it and grow from it.”

Hockey Canada is passionate about creating more opportunities for women through its We are Coaches all-female coaching certification events. The initiative strives to provide women with the resources, mentorship and network to succeed. The program also seeks to remove the barriers preventing women from pursuing the coaching profession.

Anyone interested in participating in or hosting an all-female coaching clinic can reach out to the coaching contact who works for their Hockey Canada member branch.