From a young age, I was always involved in many sports. I started out by doing gymnastics, baseball and swimming but, for many years, my friends were trying to get me to play hockey as well. It wasn’t until my sister decided that she wanted to play hockey that I finally caved and started playing too. I quickly fell in love with the sport, which made me realize that my friends were right. I should’ve joined the sport when they first told me to. I continued playing hockey all the way up until my senior season of high school, which was unfortunately cut short due to the pandemic. To put it simply, I was devastated. Once all the quarantine restrictions were lifted and the hockey season came back around, I’d already started university and couldn’t play anymore, at least not in the competitive way that I was used to. I no longer had the hockey practices and games taking up huge chunks of my schedule and honestly, I missed it. I had so much free time that I just didn’t know what to do with myself.
I had to find a way to get my hockey fix, so I started going to as many of my sister’s hockey games when my schedule would allow it. It wasn’t even close to the same as playing. Regardless, for me, it was the next best thing and it’s continued to work in my favour. I’ve been able to watch my sister grow as a hockey player, support her and have solidified my status as her number-one fan! I’ve also received some cool opportunities just from going to her games. You might be asking yourself, what possible opportunities could one get from simply watching hockey? That’s a question I would’ve probably asked too, because I never would’ve expected to have ended up here, but I love it.
So, what happened? Well, my sister’s coach began to notice that I was always at the games. I mean, I was basically the team’s biggest fan, so it was hard not to notice me. He started letting me help out with the team in a bunch of little ways. By the end of the season, he approached me to ask if I would like to be the team trainer for the next season. I didn’t expect this at all, but I was so excited about the opportunity that I said yes (with my sister’s permission, of course). But, when the season came around, I was genuinely terrified of my new role on the team. I was scared that I would accidentally overstep, or worse, that the girls wouldn’t like me. Looking back now, I realize that these weren’t the things I should’ve been worried about, but they were scary to me at the time. The part that I actually should’ve been worried about was the girls getting injured and how I’d be helping them, even whipping out some minor first aid skills. But, in the end, the season ended up going really well. When the current season started, I was asked to be one of the team trainers once again, but I was also given the opportunity to run the team’s Instagram page, which I enjoy doing very much.
Although it’s completely different from playing the sport, being the team trainer for the past two years has been exactly what I needed. I’m able to be a part of the team and still be around the hockey atmosphere. I also have a completely different perspective now that I’m on the bench than I did when I was playing and when I was watching the games from up in the stands. I never would’ve expected to receive these opportunities just from simply attending my sister’s games, but it’s worked in my favour both personally and for my future goals as it’s provided me with some relevant experience. Getting to watch the team work together and succeed has brought me a completely different type of joy than what I experienced when I played, but I honestly wouldn’t change it for the world.