Hockey Canada recognizes the advantages that exist to having women in coaching and leadership positions and the importance of young players seeing women behind the bench. Women in leadership positions have strong communication, team-building and multi-tasking skills, as well as high emotional intelligence. They also demonstrate that sport is a safe and acceptable activity for girls.

Women in coaching positions support and sustain the participation of girls and women in hockey in Canada and the benefits that girls receive by playing hockey cannot be underestimated:

• Hockey helps girls develop the core skills required for a healthy and successful life.
• Girls who play sports are also more likely to develop a positive self-image and experience overall improvements in their health and well-being.
• Girls involved in sports see better academic outcomes than those who are not, and 94% of women who hold C-suite positions participated in sports in their youth.
• A strong work ethic, an appetite for collaboration and the ability to maintain perseverance are all results of participation in sports.

However, by age 14, girls are dropping out of sport at more than twice the rate of boys and not having fun is a top-four reason that girls leave sports. The top three factors that make sports fun for girls are positive team dynamics, trying hard, and positive coaching. There is a direct connection between the hockey experiences created by women in coaching and leadership roles and the retention of girls in hockey.

Become a coach today and help to create the positive environments that keep girls in the game so that they gain an advantage on and off the ice throughout life! Hockey Canada provides FREE coach training to women across Canada through the We Are Coaches Program.

If you are already a coach, encourage more women to get involved behind the bench:

• Invite moms, aunts, and grandmas of players on your team to volunteer in an active coaching role through the We Are Coaches Program.
• Invite young women, especially current or former players, to think about coaching. Inviting an older team in your local hockey association or your local university team to take turns volunteering during practices will provide your players with incredible role models and a vision of the future playing opportunities they have.