The gold medal-winning head coach reflects on how he got involved in the women’s game, what makes Canada’s National Women’s Team so special and the best advice he’s received
My first introduction with the women’s game was many years ago when I was
playing hockey at the University of New Brunswick in the mid-1990s. They
didn’t have a women’s varsity team, but they had a club team, and every
once in a while, the team needed extra support with coaching. So, for a
brief time while I was playing, I jumped on the ice to help.
After that, I started to build my own coaching career on the men’s side. I
was actually in Calgary working at Hockey Canada’s under-17 camp and I
received a call from Darren Sutherland at Hockey Nova Scotia. He said they
had to make a last-minute coaching change for their Canada Winter Games
women’s hockey team, and called me first to see if I had anyone I would
recommend. I think I gave them three names, but two weren’t available and
one wasn’t interested, so they called me back and just asked me if I would
be interested. I jumped at the opportunity and I coached at that Canada
Winter Games in 2015.
The following year, that group of women I coached at the Canada Winter
Games got together and wrote a letter to Hockey Nova Scotia to recommend me
or nominate me for a coaching award, and I ended up winning that award.
It’s kind of a cheesy part of the story, but they were playing on my
heartstrings a little bit and I got hooked to women’s hockey right away.
One of the biggest reasons why I love coaching in women’s hockey is the
passion they have for the game. The other part is just the high-performance
side of it—when you’re coaching these women, they are true professionals.
They invest almost all their time in their craft. But it really comes down
to their passion. The passion they have for the game, the passion they have
to play for their country and the passion they have for each other really
separates them from anybody else that I’ve ever coached. They are just a
special group of athletes.
I honestly feel spoiled all the time working with Canada’s National Women’s
Team. Every day is fun working with these players and staff. I think the
biggest thing driving me as a coach is I still think this group has room to
grow. I think we’ve taken huge strides in the right direction. We’re a
better team now than we have been in the past. They genuinely care about
each other’s success,…
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