It was a full circle moment for Shakita Jensen when she stepped on the bench as head coach of Team Northwest Territories at the 2024 Arctic Winter Games.

In 2014, she played in the tournament in Alaska. A decade later, she returned to Alaska to coach.

“I felt a lot of emotions,” says Jensen, the national BFL CANADA Women in Coaching Award winner in the Competitive category.

Jensen, from the Tahltan First Nation, started as an on-ice volunteer with the Yellowknife Minor Hockey Association in 2014. Since then, her passion for giving back has driven her to continue her coaching journey.

“The hockey community has given me so much that I felt an obligation to want to give back to the hockey community in any way I could,” Jensen says. “When I got back from school, I was like, ‘I should probably try coaching, see if I like it.’ And of course I liked it right away.”

In addition to giving back, a few impactful women who coached Jensen growing up opened her eyes to her own potential journey.

“Having my first female head coach was super cool, and that made me want to get into coaching,” she says. “Growing up, being sometimes the only girl on my hockey teams, not really many women coaching, and then having my first few female coaches thinking, ‘Wow they’re so cool, I want to be like them one day.’”

The position of being a role model and a leader for youth in her community was also a driving factor in wanting to become a coach.

“I’ve had so many influential coaches in my own playing career. [There are] everlasting impacts they can have on their players, not only on the ice, but off the ice as people as well, what you can teach your players as a coach. I felt that I had lots to offer [as a head coach] and I wanted to be there for kids.”

 Jensen was in the right place at the right time to get her first head coaching position. There was a shortage of coaches in her association, so they asked Jensen—who initially applied to be an on-ice helper—if she wanted to be a head coach.

“It was a lot of quick learning and kind of being thrown into it, but I felt confident in myself the whole time,” the 26-year-old explains. “I just tried to network with past coaches as much as I could to have a successful season, which I think I did.”

Early in her career, Jensen decided to apply to be a part of the 2023 Canada Winter Games coaching staff for Team NWT, but she wasn’t selected. However, one of the coaches recommended she apply for the Aboriginal Apprentice Coach program with the Aboriginal Sports Circle.

“They chose one woman and one man from the territory, and it could be from any sport, so I knew that it was a bit of a long shot, but when I heard I got in for hockey, I was super excited.”

Through the apprenticeship program, Jensen was able to attend last year’s Canada Winter Games on Prince Edward Island and work with Team NWT leading up to the event. Afterwards, she became an assistant coach for Team NWT for the 2023 Arctic Winter Games before being promoted to head coach for the 2024 tournament.

“I think that definitely opened a lot of doors,” she says. “It was cool to see the progression and to allow me to gain all the tools and resources that I needed to prepare my team.”

As head coach of Team NWT, the location of each player’s hometowns can often be difficult to navigate—sometimes resulting in very few full team practices before an event.

“It was definitely a challenge wanting to build your team culture and work on your strategies and trying to prepare for a high-performance, short-term competition when your team is scattered all over the territories, in some places that are fly in/fly out or just a lot of money barriers,” she explains. “I think one thing that was super helpful was our ability to connect online leading up to the Games.”

Another huge opportunity for Jensen’s team this year was February’s One For All event in Yellowknife. With more than 300 participants over four days, the event celebrated women’s and girls’ hockey with Try Hockey events, on-ice skills, coaching clinics and more.

Team Northwest Territories and Team Nunavut gathered to practice and face off in an exhibition game.

“It was an overwhelming successful weekend—players putting on their hockey gear for the first time and then other players who were about to be graduating minor hockey,” says Jensen, who volunteered with the event. “It felt super to contribute to that program, give back and hopefully keep that program on a yearly basis here.”

When Jensen found out she was the BFL CANADA Women in Coaching Award winner for Hockey North in the Competitive category, she was shocked.

“I was so surprised, kind of caught off guard. I felt so much pride and gratitude.”

Jensen was unsure if she would be able to compete with the great provincial and territorial candidates across the country. But when she saw Cassie Campbell-Pascall on a video call congratulating her for winning the national award, she was in disbelief all over again.

“There are really no words,” she says of winning the national award. “There are so many influential coaches who go unrecognized sometimes for all the work they do. [I’m] really feeling proud of myself, but also feeling proud of everyone else across Canada who’s doing so much for the women’s game.”

Callie Langmead’s passion for coaching comes from personal experience.

Growing up in Flatrock, N.L., Langmead played hockey with the boys because there wasn’t a girls’ team. Over the past 12 years, she has helped coach various Northeast Eagles Minor Hockey Association (NEMHA) teams out of Torbay, N.L.

Three years ago, Langmead, along with fellow coach Bill Everson and NEMHA female director Harold Kelly, created an all-girls program within the association, and they haven’t looked back.

“When I played, I had to go to a different organization to play girls hockey,” says Langmead. “There weren’t enough girls in our area, but we have grown since then.”

The women’s hockey program started with a U15 team and two U12 teams; today, it includes four in U9, three in U12, and one each in U15 and U20.

“It is great to see how much girls’ hockey has grown in our area since we started the program just three years ago,” she says.

Her leadership in the program and guidance behind the bench helped Langmead win the BFL Female Coach of the Year Award (Community) for Newfoundland and Labrador.

“It was so cool to be recognized. I didn’t expect it,” Langmead says. “I coach because I love it. It was so nice to see that people appreciate all the effort and work I’ve put in.”

Langmead hopes to inspire the players she coaches through her own experiences and dedication to the game. She left the East Coast in high school to play prep-school hockey at Balmoral Hall in Winnipeg before returning home for university.

“The girls know I went away for hockey, and I want to show them that there are opportunities for them to play hockey off the island,” she says. “I just want to give back to the girls I coach. My coaches impacted me growing up and not just my game, and I hope I am doing that for them.”

Everson nominated Langmead for the award and said it was “heartwarming” to see her win.

“I get to see the work and dedication she puts into the game,” he says. “[The players] all love Callie. I don’t know how to explain it – they are all drawn to her. When she speaks, they all listen.”

It was fitting for Langmead to win the award, Everson says, since he and Kelly had been thinking of ways to recognize her for all she has done for the NEMHA.

“We’ve been talking the last couple of years on recognizing Callie because of the time she commits to minor hockey, especially the girls. We’ve been trying to think of what we could do for her, and when this came up, it just made sense.”

Langmead’s joy for the game started early as she watched her dad play, but it wasn’t until she was 10 years old that she laced up her own skates and began to play after a friend signed up to play.

“I didn’t even know that girls could play hockey at that age,” she says. “I love that it is becoming normal that girls who are three or four are jumping on the ice, and they belong.”

That sense of belonging and opportunity is what drives Langmead to continue to coach at the grassroots level, so that younger girls feel welcome and connected to the sport.

“Girls should have that equal opportunity that the boys have,” she says. “If you want to play, you can play on an all-girls team, and you can get on the ice when you are young. It is great to see these girls get the opportunity that I didn’t have growing up.”

Langmead shares the same mentality when it comes to having women behind the bench.

“I want to show the girls that not only can they play, but they can grow up and coach too if they want to,” she says. “Being a female coach, especially to teenagers, I can relate to them better. I want them to realize they have the same knowledge and expertise to play and coach.”

Langmead is finishing her master’s degree in clinical epidemiology and starting medical school in August. Still, she hopes to continue coaching with the NEMHA and in addition to teaching power skating at Xtreme Hockey.

“As long as I stay on the ice, I will be happy.”

Alex Boulanger used to spend her working hours waiting for the weekend. To get away from the office and back to the rink. She didn’t care about the level; she just wanted to spend more time around hockey. Then it finally occurred to her that she could. She just had to try.

“What was tough for me was [worrying about] what other people were going to think … but at the end of the day, it’s what you’re going to think if you don’t,” Boulanger said. “Have the courage to just go … often times [success] is just the audacity to go and try.”

So, at 29 years old, the product of Brossard, Quebec, went back to university in pursuit of a career in hockey.

She enrolled at the Université de Montréal and played two seasons with the Carabins, until there was no longer room for her on the roster. Though disappointing at the time, being forced to find a new team (and therefore a new school) was a stroke of luck for Boulanger.

She reached out to Concordia University coach Caroline Ouellette and asked for a tryout. It went well and she was invited to join the team.

“I didn’t know Alex very much, but I had heard great things about her character, her leadership and about her as a teammate,” said Ouellette, a four-time Olympic gold medallist and 2023 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee. “I knew she was very involved in the community already as a student-athlete, in coaching and volunteering in different areas of hockey, so for us at Concordia it just made sense to have that type of leadership and character and experience.”

“That’s where the passion and the goal to coach really grew, especially under [Ouellette], who I can now call a good friend and a good mentor to me,” Boulanger said. “She and Julie [Chu] have been very kind to me, took me under their wings.”

U SPORTS transfer rules require a player to redshirt for a season before being eligible with a new school, so by the time Boulanger suited up for the Stingers, she was in her fourth year of university. Which, coincidentally, meant she was eligible for Creating Coaches, a program launched by Hockey Canada and the Hockey Canada Foundation (HCF) in 2021. It is designed to encourage more women into leadership positions by supporting senior student-athletes to try coaching.

“It’s tough when you want to start coaching and you’re a player … you need training, but you also need the connection to a team,” Boulanger said, explaining how the Hockey Canada program facilitates the needs of the student-athlete and the minor hockey teams they coach.

In addition to providing coaching certification, Creating Coaches connects the athletes with a minor hockey organization to build a coaching resume. A financial subsidy from the HCF enables athletes to commit more easily to the whole program by not having to balance part-time work on top of everything else.

“If it wasn’t for the program and the financial support that’s through the Hockey Canada Foundation, there’s no way I could have committed all my free time to a team,” Boulanger said, who spent two seasons with CEGEP teams while finishing up her own schooling.

“You can tell right away as a coach yourself, there’s a certain few that have what it takes to become a coach,” Ouellette explained. “I think Alex always had the intangibles: the work ethic, the passion, the dedication for the game to better herself, to better her teammates and to want to study the game.

“We were really, really so proud that she was chosen as part of the Creating Coaches program because we really believe it’s truly an important program to build and to give opportunities to more student-athletes to start coaching and to develop a passion for it.”

Boulanger graduated from Concordia (and Creating Coaches) in 2023 and felt ready to make a living out of hockey. A longtime friend and former minor hockey teammate, Valérie Bois, had just been named head coach of the women’s hockey team at Bishop’s University, so Boulanger made a call. One brief, formal meeting later, she was a full-time assistant coach.

“I was coaching players I had just played against for the past two seasons,” Boulanger pointed out. “But at some point, you just have to take the opportunity when it comes.”

Boulanger is no stranger to opportunity. With the Stingers, she was part of back-to-back U SPORTS national championship drives, including one title win. With the Gaiters, she was back in the national championship game in just her second season behind the bench. But this time, Boulanger was facing down a friendly foe. Waterloo Warriors assistant coach Emma Cheeseman was in the inaugural Creating Coaches cohort with Boulanger.

“Emma and I, during the starting [lineup] presentation, looked at each other and were just like ‘Let’s go!’” Boulanger remembered. “It was just like coming full circle.”

“We were so very proud for her and Valérie Bois, who is also a great friend in coaching,” Ouellette said. “We felt a lot of pride for Alex in her young coaching career because we know how hard she worked to bring Bishop’s to the level they were playing at when it mattered the most.”

Coming off the national title, Bois was offered a position in the Professional Women’s Hockey League. When it was time to tell Boulanger, she just had one question.

“She gave me a call and said, ‘When would you be ready to be a head coach?’” Boulanger said with a grin.

Boulanger was named Bishop’s head coach for the 2025-26 season. Eight years after starting a journey to break away from a desk, Boulanger was living her dream.

CALGARY, Alberta – Hockey Canada and U SPORTS have announced that Creating Coaches, a program designed to increase the number of women coaching hockey in Canada, has expanded to welcome 12 student-athletes as part of its fifth cohort.

The student-athletes will continue to play U SPORTS women’s hockey while serving as assistant coaches for U13, U15 or U18 girls' hockey teams in their respective communities. Each student-athlete will receive training, mentorship, education and an honorarium throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.

This year’s cohort includes student-athletes from 12 U SPORTS women’s hockey programs across all four of its conferences:

• Grace Beer (Dalhousie University, AUS)
• Sarah Bestic (University of Waterloo, OUA)
• Anika Cormier (McGill University, RSEQ)
• Hayleigh Craig (University of Alberta, CW)
• Cailey Davis (Toronto Metropolitan University, OUA)
• Kara den Hoed (Wilfrid Laurier University, OUA)
• Alexa Giantsopoulos (York University, OUA)
• Payton Hargreaves (University of New Brunswick, AUS)
• Kaitlyn McKnight (University of Toronto, OUA)
• Angélique Proulx (University of Ottawa, OUA)
• Cassidy Rhodes (University of British Columbia, CW)
• Jordyn Verbeek (Concordia University, RSEQ)

“We are very excited to expand the Creating Coaches program to welcome even more incredible student-athletes from across U SPORTS this season, thanks to the generous financial support of the Hockey Canada Foundation,” said Marin Hickox, vice-president of women’s and girls’ hockey for Hockey Canada. “Last season set a record for the most women coaching hockey in Canadian history, and we know that programs like Creating Coaches are critical for continuing to support the recruitment, retention and development of women and girls in hockey leadership roles.

To each of our new Creating Coaches participants, congratulations on being nominated and selected to join this program. We cannot wait to follow your journeys behind the bench for years to come.

Creating Coaches was launched in 2021 through a partnership between Hockey Canada, U SPORTS and the Hockey Canada Foundation to provide current student-athletes with opportunities to begin their coaching careers while still playing university women’s hockey.

Since its inception, Creating Coaches has included student-athletes from 23 U SPORTS women’s hockey programs and all four of its conferences.

“During National Coaches Week, it’s fitting to celebrate the investment in people who will shape the future of our sport,” said Pierre Arsenault, chief executive officer of U SPORTS. “Creating Coaches gives U SPORTS athletes a clear, supported runway to develop as coaches and mentors, and we’re proud to expand this program with Hockey Canada and the Hockey Canada Foundation.”

The Creating Coaches selection committee includes representation from Hockey Canada, U SPORTS, Hockey Canada’s Members and the Hockey Canada Foundation Board of Directors.

During National Coaches Week, Hockey Canada is celebrating the positive impact coaches have on athletes in communities from coast to coast to coast, with coaching resources and features shared here.

For more information on Hockey Canada, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.

Coaching her daughter got Trula Seaward back into hockey and she’s enjoying every minute of it.

Growing up in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador, Seaward played the game throughout the 1990s when she was one of the only women’s hockey players in her small community.

“It was very unheard of in my community when I played,” Seaward says. “I have a strong hockey background and played right through university.”

She eventually turned her focus from playing hockey to her career as a nurse and then starting her family.

When her daughter was 18 months old, Seaward put her on skates for the first time—and she loved it.

“Of course, I wanted her to be a hockey player just like me. When she was four, we enrolled her in hockey in Port aux Basques,” Seaward says. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to get involved again. You don’t realize how much you miss it until you take some time away from it.”

It all came full circle for Seaward when her daughter’s U7 Timbits program needed help on the ice during practices.

“When she started with the U7 program, I went on the ice more as a helper. There were some great coaches on the ice with me,” she says. “They showed me the ropes, how to run practices and how to build a positive relationship with the kids, because the more positive your relationship, the more the kids tend to respond to you.”

Seaward stayed behind the bench with her daughter’s teams, moving up to the U11 program where she currently coaches both the minor and girls' programs with Port aux Basques Minor Hockey.

One of the moments that cemented her decision to continue coaching was at a U13 girls’ provincial championship that took place in Port aux Basques two years ago.

“[A team] had a female coach, but the coach’s daughter got really sick during the first game of the tournament. Being certified to be on the bench, they asked me to help,” she explains. “I couldn’t see these girls forfeit, so I said I’d do it.”

As nervous as she was, Seaward helped lead that team to a provincial championship, winning all five games.

“I was a nervous wreck. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I felt totally out of place,” she says. “When I walked into that dressing room, I was so intimidated, but we won, and it was probably one of the most rewarding weekends I’ve had.”

Seaward continues to be the head coach for the U11 rep team and still volunteers with the other minor programs. She also helps with her son’s team and other divisions needing support, and is the director of female operations for Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador.

“That tournament was my turning point. From that moment forward, I decided that I would keep on coaching,” she says. “It was a wonderful experience because it built my confidence and I’ve grown so much in that area.”

Getting back into the game in a different capacity revived not only her love for hockey, but it also brought a different kind of joy—watching the growth of the kids she coaches.

“For me, it’s just having the opportunity to be a part of the kids’ lives and trying to have a positive impact on them,” she says. “It’s not about the goals or saves, it’s the personal growth I get to witness in these kids. I think what I love about coaching the most is getting to pass on what the game has given to me.”

In Port aux Basques—with a population of just over 3,500—the growth of women’s hockey has taken off in recent years. Without girls playing in several of the minor divisions, they wouldn’t exist.

With the introduction and growth of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), young girls now see actual opportunities to go after their hockey dreams.

“We see the PWHL and a woman coach in the National Hockey League now. My little girl said she wants to play in the PWHL, but her back up plan is to be a coach,” Seaward says. “There was none of that when I was growing up. This generation of women’s hockey players are finally realizing there is no limit—you can be a coach, a referee, a trainer or a player.”

Being able to see women in roles throughout hockey also starts at the grassroots level—something Seaward is very aware of and willing to lead the way in her community.

“It is so important, and the girls love having a woman coach—they are more comfortable, and they can spread their wings, find their confidence and their comfort. They can just be themselves,” she says.

Not only has Seaward been honoured in her own community for her involvement and giving back to the game, but she was also recently announced as the national winner of the BFL CANADA Women in Coaching Award in the Community category.

“When they told me I won, I was quite shocked,” she says. “It’s pretty special to me and I’m very honoured.”

The accolades are nice, but Seaward hopes this personal achievement will provide a boost to the growth of hockey in Port aux Basques and other communities by showing girls and women that they belong and can dream big.

“I think it’s just so important not only for my community to see that, but it’s an opportunity to grow women’s hockey.”

Coaching was always a natural fit for Karissa Kirkup.

The Brandon, Manitoba, native was interested in becoming a teacher when she was younger, so she decided to get involved in coaching to gain experience working with kids.

“I think I’ve always enjoyed the connection with people. Through my experiences as a player, I’ve always really enjoyed and learned so many life lessons through the game of hockey,” says the 29-year-old Kirkup, who was named the national recipient of the BFL CANADA Women in Coaching Award in the Competitive category. “I always loved giving back to the game that gave me so much.”

Now a Grade 6 teacher and working on a master’s degree in education, Kirkup defines herself as a lifelong learner. She loves learning new teaching strategies that can benefit her in the classroom and on the ice.

“The world is constantly evolving and we’re learning a lot about the next generation coming up,” she says. “I think it’s super important to keep pushing myself and not staying stagnant in both of my coaching and teaching roles.”

Balancing teaching and coaching can be challenging. It requires a lot of preparation and organization for Kirkup to be set up for success.

“I will admit, it is a juggling act right from the start of September,” she says. “It does have to be a full team effort throughout a long hockey season. It’s a lot of months and a lot of time being put into both teaching and coaching.”

Kirkup grew up playing minor hockey in Portage la Prairie before her family moved to Virden for high school. She joined the Westman Wildcats to play U18 AAA in the Manitoba Female Hockey League (MFHL).

“That experience was a major driving force in why I’m coaching again today,” she explains. “I always look back with fond memories of [playing for the Wildcats]. I enjoyed my time there.”

Kirkup believes in chasing adversity. She believes by trusting those around you and leaning on people for support, you will come out of adversity as a stronger and better person.

As Kirkup was looking to get into coaching, she noticed that there was no U15 AAA or U18 AAA teams in Brandon. After discussing the idea with others, she took a leap of faith to start working with community members to build a program.

“Being a small part of building a program from the ground out was a tremendous experience. I got to grow and learn with people around me that also cared a lot about the game,” she says. “I knew with the dedicated people around me, we could make it happen.”

Quickly, Kirkup began to find success on and off the ice with her team. In the first season as head coach of the Brandon Wheat Kings, her U15 AAA team became rural provincial champions in the 2021-22 season.

“Those are some of the memories that I’ll never forget, how those players are clutch in some big moments,” Kirkup says. “We carried momentum from there—next season, we had some strong players again, and we found some success again.”

The U15 AAA Wheat Kings went on to be the MFHL champions in back-to-back seasons (2022-23, 2023-24). Kirkup moved up to coach the U18 AAA Wheat Kings last season. She continues to watch the careers of the players she has coached—in fact, all six graduating players from her first U15 AAA team are moving on to become student-athletes this fall.

“The players that I was working with had a lot of resilience,” Kirkup says. “I have so much pride for those groups that our coaching staff initially got to work with and continue to work with now.”

As a player, Kirkup represented Manitoba twice at the U18 Women’s National Championship—she won bronze in 2011 and silver in 2012. Kirkup also had the opportunity to attend camp with Canada’s National Women’s Development Team in 2013. She always knew that she wanted to come back to Team Manitoba as a coach in some capacity. She applied to be a part of the coaching staff at the 2023 Canada Winter Games and was named an assistant coach.

“[I had] a couple of years of head coaching under my belt and I wanted to continue to push myself, chase that adversity and challenge myself to be a better coach and a better teacher,” she says.

Kirkup joined assistant Maddie Litchfield-Medd and head coach Ashley van Aggelen on the bench for the tournament—a full circle moment considering van Aggelen coached Kirkup at U18 Nationals back in 2012.

In 2024, Kirkup was an assistant coach with Manitoba at U18 Nationals, and she will lead her province at the 2025 tournament in Newfoundland and Labrador later this year. As someone who has both played and coached in the national championship, Kirkup brings a unique perspective to the bench.

“It’s very important to humanize the experience and to acknowledge that the reason you have nerves is because you care and you want to do well at these bigger events,” she says. “In short-term competition, it’s about building that trust early on and continuing to do little things to maintain that throughout a tournament.”

This season marks a new chapter for Kirkup. After four years with the Wheat Kings, she is moving to the U18 AAA Westman Wildcats to coach the team she grew up playing for.

“I’m so excited for this coming season. […] Some people that were involved when I was there as a player are still involved and are doing their best to create and maintain a program that has sent lots of players on to the post-secondary level,” she says. “I plan to go in there and continue on the legacy of that program.”

As she reflected on the impact of being one of the national recipients of a BFL CANADA Women in Coaching Award, Kirkup is fortunate to have worked with and lean on some amazing coaching staffs—including working alongside her dad for two seasons.

“Having that experience in that relationship to have hard conversations, to incorporate the entire coaching staff, it’s important,” she says. “You’re doing the next best right thing, but you’re always evolving and you’re always learning.”

Kirkup encourages women that are getting started on their own coaching journeys to chase their own adversity.

“If you wait for the right moment to be ready to take on an assistant or head coaching role, that moment of readiness is never going to come,” she explains. “If you’re interested in coaching, dive into it with the best intentions and the best effort that you can. Ask questions, be open-minded and have fun with it.”

Coaches are leaders in hockey. Providing the space and resources to allow players to be the best they can be on and off the ice is an important job—and it’s something Vicky Sunohara takes seriously as a coach.

“[Our job as a coach] is to develop people through sport,” Sunohara says. “I take that very serious. It’s not only developing the hockey side, but it’s also trying to help provide a supportive environment and be a leader within a good culture.”

When Sunohara she learned that she was selected as the national recipient of this year’s BFL CANADA Women in Coaching Award in the High Performance category, she was surprised.

“I’m not certain I’m deserving of this recognition, but it’s very humbling,” she says. “I coach with and against some amazing women coaches and I’ve learned so much from many of them. This is pretty special.”

It’s no secret that Sunohara has a wealth of experience and accolades that she pours into her coaching roles. A two-time Olympic gold medallist and seven-time world champion during her playing career, Sunohara sits 11th in scoring with Canada’s National Women’s Team with 118 points (56-62—118) in 164 international games and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Her playing career dates back to the 1980s; after four seasons of college and university hockey—two with Northeastern University and two with the University of Toronto—she spent time in the old Central Ontario Women’s Hockey League (COWHL) before playing parts of 11 seasons with the Brampton Thunder in the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) and Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL)

Some players know they want to coach after they retire, but that was not the case for Sunohara.

“I didn’t think that I would get into coaching, to be honest,” she explains. “It was kind of just sprung on me at the time. I started to help out at practice, running a few drills.”

Near the end of her last CWHL season, Sunohara discovered she was pregnant with her twin boys. Deciding not to take any chances, she spoke to some teammates and decided to hop behind the bench for the rest of the season.

“From then on, [coaching] was in the back of my mind because I realized I wasn’t going to play anymore.”

After her sons were born, Sunohara became the director of women’s hockey at The Hill Academy in Caledon, Ontario, a role she held for two seasons. In 2011, a full-time head coaching position opened with the University of Toronto’s women’s hockey team.

She jumped into the role with her alma mater, despite not having much insight into all of the responsibilities of a U SPORTS head coach.

“I didn’t start as an assistant coach, so I didn’t really learn from a head coach or have a mentor coach. I had many great coaches as a player, and that’s where I drew a lot of my coaching philosophies from,” she says. “I had my own thoughts on what I really liked and what I wanted to continue, but not any experience as an assistant coach. That was difficult.”

With the help of a supportive athletic director and staff, Sunohara began to navigate through her journey as a head coach, learning as she went.

Thirteen seasons later, Sunohara has guided the Varsity Blues to three McCaw Cups as Ontario University Athletics (OUA) champions (2020, 2023, 2025) and a trip to the U SPORTS national championship game in 2024. She was named coach of the year for both the OUA and U SPORTS for three consecutive seasons from 2019-23 and earned OUA Female Coach of the Year honours spanning across all sports in 2019-20.

“When I won my first Olympic gold medal, I loved watching the joy in my teammates and staff, and just knowing the work and what went into winning that. I get that feeling when we won the OUA championship because it’s really difficult,” she says. “We play in a difficult league; it’s not something that is easy to win. I love watching my assistant coaches, staff and the players—I can step back and I feel so great and proud of them.”

Having the chance to reconnect with players after their university career is over provides another opportunity for reflection.

“Seeing players again and talking about their experiences and where they’ve done after they’ve graduated—it’s awesome,” she says. “Having the opportunity to be a small part of their lives is amazing.”

In addition to university sports, Sunohara loves to coach women’s U18 athletes. As a player, she didn’t have as many chances to play high-level hockey and develop at that age.

“I had great leadership and guidance playing on the senior team, but I think missed out on those years of opportunities on at a very young age,” Sunohara says. “These U18 teams, they’re learning at a younger age and able to be supportive of each other, but they also understand that even if you’re not on a top power play or the top line, you can still have an impact on the team’s success.”

Sunohara was an assistant coach when Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team won gold at the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship in 2022 and bronze in 2024. This past season, she took the reins as head coach, winning another world title, and she is returning to lead Canada at the 2026 U18 Women’s Worlds in Sydney and Membertou, Nova Scotia.

With her own experience representing Canada on a national stage, Sunohara is happy to have the opportunity to share what made her teams successful and make a different in the next generation’s development.

“It’s really rewarding and so exciting for me to watch the young players put on the Team Canada jersey for the first time and represent their country,” she says. “After this past worlds, to watch them win gold, it’s such a feeling of pride.”

Sunohara’s coaching experience doesn’t stop there—she joined the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres hockey operations staff this season as a coach consultant and participated in practice planning with the team’s coaching staff.

“I loved every minute of it,” she says. “I learned so much and being on the ice with the players at that level was pretty special.”

Witnessing the evolution of professional women’s hockey up close also provided some reflection about how far the game has come since Sunohara hung up her skates.

“I would have loved to be a part of that as a player. Watching something that is a dream come true for me was pretty special,” she says. “I loved having the opportunity to have conversations with the players and coaches about continuing to develop the game and listening to their thoughts.”

The phrase, “if you can see it, you can be it,” is often associated with women’s hockey in terms of inspiring the next generation to play, coach and officiate. Sunohara says she’s still learning and developing as a coach.

Although she was initially thrown into her coaching journey, she’s happy that she has mentors now to get guidance, feedback and help.

“We always talk about getting out of your comfort zone as a player. Get out of your comfort zone as a coach and ask for a mentor,” she encourages. “Coaches are often willing to help each other. The best part of development is having those conversations, learning, working with people and being a fly on the wall.

“There’s so many people that would love to help and be a part of the growth of a coach.”

“It was seeing my son on the ice and just having that want and desire to be out there with him and experience what he was experiencing, helping him learn,” she says.

That was almost six years ago.

Today, Keeley is the national BFL CANADA Women in Coaching Award recipient in the Community category, and the creator of a thriving coach development program with the Knights Hockey Club in Calgary.

“I think it’s important for women to realize that they have so much to offer and that what they have to offer is recognized and is appreciated,” Keeley says of the BFL CANADA honour. “This award gives that; it brings light to [the fact] that we can do this. We’re here now, and let’s keep blazing trails and breaking ceilings and all of those amazing things.”

A ringette player growing up who dabbled in hockey when the boys’ team in her northern Saskatchewan community needed bodies to fill out the lineup, Keeley had never given much thought to coaching until her son got into the game at the Timbits U7 level in the fall of 2018.

When she wasn’t selected to coach the following season in U9, her attention turned back to her first athletic love and she joined the Bow View Ringette Association, working as an assistant coach and head coach at U10 and U12.

“[It was about] learning and gaining the confidence that I needed to step back into hockey and make a difference,” she says of her three years with Bow View.

The word that continually comes up is process – Keeley spent those seasons observing other coaches, ensuring she was surrounded by the right people, building her coaching support system, filling her toolbox and learning how to be a coach in the competitive space.

One of her biggest takeaways? No one does it alone.

“What I believe makes the most successful coach is to surround themselves with people for the skills that they don’t currently have,” Keeley says. “And so for me, I always make sure that I have a very, very rounded team of people that can offset the skills that I don’t have, that I can learn from.”

When the 2022-23 hockey season rolled around, Keeley was ready to get back behind the bench with her son at the U11 level.

But she didn’t come back to hockey empty-handed. In addition to the skills she had learned with Bow View, Keeley came armed with a proposal for a coach development program targeted at women.

“The program was not so much about giving women all the tools they needed to be a coach,” she says. “It starts with having the confidence to put up their hand and say, ‘Yeah, I have something to offer.’ It was really about just helping the ladies to make that decision to put up their hand and to help them have that confidence to step on the ice.

“One of the objectives was to make sure that we had strong female leadership to keep girls in sport, because that’s important. What if we have strong leadership from the same gender on the ice? Would that make a difference? Would girls want to stay [involved in hockey] if they saw strong female coaches on the ice?”

The association was quick to jump at the proposal, and Keeley was off and running.

“Where we started was I held one on-ice session to begin with, and we had 12 ladies that put up their hand and came out,” she says. “And really what it was about more than anything was just to see what this program was all about.

“I had an hour-and-a-half ice time, and I think we spent 20 minutes on the ice. What we spent more time doing was talking about if this was the right fit for them, if they had the confidence to put their skates on and what this was going to look like if they actually got selected to be on the ice with their kid. It was amazing to hear females talk about challenges and obstacles and barriers, and me as a part of launching this program, being able to provide that space to have those open and honest conversations that they wouldn’t have anywhere else.”

What was originally meant to be a local program for women in the Knights program rapidly turned into something much bigger, much to Keeley’s delight.

Next was a training course, with the help of Hockey Alberta – the province’s first women-only Coach 2 clinic.

“At first, I was just opening it to the [local] group that had shown interest. Then we decided to open up to all of Alberta. And so on a very snowy November day, we had 24 females sitting in a room from across Alberta. We did the four-hour classroom, and then the next day we met for another seven [hours].

“That’s where the network started. A lot of us still keep in contact, and we send out emails to each other, and when there is an event happening for all female coaches, we make sure that we share and attend.”

In that first season, nine women were behind the bench with the Knights Hockey Club. During the 2023-24 season, that number grew to 14 – two as head coaches and 12 as assistants.

Keeley hosted a start-of-season meeting in September to teach coaches how to prepare a season plan and build practice plans, and had regular check-ins with every coach involved in the program, working through any challenges they were facing and ensuring they were getting what they needed from the experience.

She also continues to work closely with Hockey Calgary, participating in ongoing opportunities for women in coaching, including on- and off-ice development sessions.

But her No. 1 role is still being a mom, and there are few things that give her more joy than sharing hockey with her son. This season, Keeley led the U13 Tier 4 team.

“I always ask if he wants me to coach,” she says of her son. “And that even existed when I went and coached ringette because, of course, I wasn’t with him. I was always a non-parent coach in ringette, and I would ask him every season, ‘Are you okay if I do this?’

“When I coached the U12 AA team [in the spring of 2022], I was away quite a bit. We were on the ice five times a week. That was the first time he ever said to me, ‘Mom, I miss you. Can you come coach me?’

“We’re just in the midst of filling out our application for this upcoming season, which is his second year of U13. And he said, ‘Mom, are you going to coach again?’ I said, ‘Do you want me to?’ He said, ‘As long as you want to.’ So yes, I’m going to apply to be a coach again.”

That’s a lucky son, and a lucky association that gets to benefit from what Keeley has to offer.

But ask her, and she’ll tell you just the opposite – that she’s the lucky one, benefitting from what the players can offer her.

“I have had some really amazing experiences both on and off the ice, just learning from these players. The amount, if you sit back and you listen, that you can learn is just unbelievable, and they always make you smile.”

Even as a player, Kelly Paton had always taken an interest in what happens behind the scenes in hockey. She took opportunities to learn more about the game from her coaching staff, including how staff helped to support student-athletes while she attended the University of New Hampshire.

That, along with her strong hockey IQ, led Paton’s head coach, Brian McCloskey, to give her a piece of advice: “Patty, you’re a coach.”

“He just kept telling me I was a coach,” says Paton, the national BFL CANADA Women in Coaching Award winner in the High Performance category. “Certainly, I was interested; I didn’t have my mind made up. I wanted to find ways to stay connected to the game and at that point, with some limitations of hockey beyond college, that was probably my best pathway for it.”

A Woodstock, Ontario, native who has spent the last six seasons as head coach of the women’s hockey team at Wilfrid Laurier University, Paton grew up in an athletic family. When her older brother started playing hockey, Paton wanted to start playing as well.

“Many days were spent in our cul-de-sac; I got stuck in the goalie position and his friends would shoot many pucks and balls my way,” Paton says. “That’s probably where my interest started.”

Paton initially played boys hockey in her hometown until switching to girls’ hockey with the London Devilettes. After her final year of minor hockey, she spent four years at New Hampshire, serving as captain and finishing as a top-three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award as a senior in the 2009-10 season.

“[It] helped shape my confidence in my ability to play the game, but then big picture, how there are ways where I could give back and help the development of others,” Paton says of her time as a Wildcat. “I think that’s where I had some affirmation that my IQ for the game was pretty good and that aligned really well with coaching.”

After completing her undergraduate degree, Paton wasn’t sure how she wanted to incorporate coaching into her life, whether as a volunteer or as a career. But after finishing a graduate degree at Mercyhurst University and then living on Vancouver Island for a while, she decided to return home to Southwestern Ontario and get back involved with the game she loved.

She reconnected with her minor hockey roots by taking on a coaching role with the Devilettes’ junior program. There, Paton credits Dwayne Blais for being one of her mentors as she began her coaching journey.

“I was the head coach, but he certainly was the one I leaned on the most with being mentored and learning how to manage conflict, how to manage expectation, but more importantly just building practice plans that supported development.”

After reconnecting with one of her junior coaches, Paton was presented with an opportunity to join Western University as an assistant coach.

“I walked into a space where [the Mustangs] were coming off a national championship, which came with a lot of expectations,” Paton says. “I was happy we were still able to carry out some of that momentum and be a top performer in the OUA.”

Paton served as an assistant coach for two years before being promoted to head coach at Western. Ahead of the 2018-19 season, she made the move to Laurier.

“We’re coming off a great season this past year and our leadership group has done an excellent job of really stepping into a space where they’re allowing me to coach, which is awesome,” she says. “We’re certainly a team that carries high expectations, knowing that we still have responsibility to carry the legacy of Laurier hockey. […] The goal is to keep moving forward. I certainly think we’re in the right pathway to do that, and a lot of that is a testament to the players that we have in our program now.”

Reflecting on her time coaching in U SPORTS, one of the bigger transitions for Paton was navigating how to match her communication to each individual player on her team.

“In the university sector, it can get really challenging to satisfy 25 athletes with all different learning styles and still walk away and feel like we got through what we needed to get through today,” she explains. “Now with experience, I’ve learned that’s part of the process. But when I was younger, that day-to-day management of seeing where everybody’s at—generally the only way to figure that out is to ask, and that’s where the communication piece is.”

Building relationships has been key to Paton’s coaching journey, and she is grateful to have found a support system in her corner as she continues to develop as a coach.

“It’s been a pretty critical piece to finding confidence in myself,” Paton says of her mentors. “There’s been a couple that have been instrumental with shaping my coaching style, my communication style, my knowledge of the game. Dwayne was a big piece of that, Rachel Flanagan, and even my college coach, Brian. I still speak with him [14 years after graduating].”

For those looking to begin their coaching journeys or advance their coaching career into the high-performance area, Paton’s advice would be to stay honest and accountable.

“When mistakes happen, don’t shy away from taking ownership of that. If there are areas that are challenging or you need advice on, that’s where that mentorship really comes in handy; having somebody that’s a neutral soundboard that’s going to help you make decisions without carried bias or carried experiences.

“I’m really grateful that I’ve had those opportunities to have good people around me and have the confidence that went up when mistakes are made, and that helps trickle into the player group as well.”