Yes, I Coach Hockey

I am a woman in a man’s world and many perceive me as just a mother who plays hockey.

I only started playing hockey at age 46. Now at 55 I am a USA Hockey certified at level 5. There are many drivers behind my energy. For one, I am a single mother to 5 hockey players, 1 girl, 4 boys so I am try to be as involved with my kids as I can and I push myself into roles that fathers traditionally play. I never dreamed I’d have boys and I never played sports as a kid, nor did I play in high school or college. I was a cheerleader in high school! So once I decided I wanted to help coach, I got resistance and hoops to jump through. Then, before I could get too discouraged, I got breast cancer. I’m not sure which fight fueled me more. Perhaps synergistically they worked to make me incredibly determined to survive and succeed in this most unlikely avocation.

So here I am, coaching and coaching coordinator in a youth hockey program. I also run my own clinics from mites to midgets (www.icoachhockey.com). It is really quite fun to see me run a practice with 20 high school boys on the ice.