Building a community around hockey

Haneet Parhar didn’t all the time have hockey in her plans. But for one motive or
one other, hockey all the time discovered a approach again into her life. And for that, Parhar
is ceaselessly grateful for the alternatives she’s had by way of the sport.

Her ardour for giving again to the game that gave her a lot has led to
her being honoured because the BFL Female Coach of the Year within the High
Performance class.

“There’s been so many instances in my life the place I’ve advised myself ‘This is it, I
don’t know if I’ll ever return to a rink or choose up my skates,’ after which
growth, I come again to hockey,” Parhar says.

As a student-athlete on the University of British Columbia, there was loads
of uncertainty if she would even make the Thunderbirds roster. She would
ultimately have a really profitable U SPORTS profession, profitable three Canada West
championships, however her time at UBC additionally kicked off a profession in teaching that
she by no means imagined.

From wanting to only keep concerned as an 18-year-old undergrad scholar,
working as a coach in neighborhood rink packages and UBC hockey camps within the
summer season, it reminded Parhar of the enjoyment she present in hockey, for herself and
the children in her packages.

“Doing it all through my faculty and varsity profession at UBC, I coached on the
leisure degree for five-and-a-half years,” she says. “When you begin at
that degree, I actually did it as a result of I cherished it. You see the children smile and
it’s very easy to remove that hardcore model of teaching and do it for
enjoyable. It was an important match for me.”

Coaching youngsters from ages six to fifteen, not solely did it encourage Parhar to get
the children to take part, but it surely additionally reminded her how particular it was rising
up with hockey.

“It jogged my memory of once I was younger once we performed sports activities for enjoyable, too.
Being capable of present that chance for youths to have a secure house for
themselves and permit them to department out, that’s what issues.”

When her Thunderbirds profession got here to an finish in 2017, Parhar was able to
dangle up the skates, with the expectation that she had already given
all the things she needed to the game. Looking again to her time in appreciation,
she’s grateful for a way all of the teaching workers, led by head coach Graham
Thomas and assistant coach Mike Sommer, impressed her. It wasn’t till after
she left the UBC program that she realized how far their affect went.

A yr after graduating, working full-time whereas teaching for enjoyable on the
facet along with her hometown North Shore Avalanche, Parhar acquired a name from
Thomas that opened up a brand new path in her life.

“I didn’t think coaching would be my end-all, be-all,” Parhar explains. “I
wasn’t a star participant, I wasn’t a captain, however [Thomas] stated he wished a brand new
voice. I got here in with my expertise as a participant who knew the tradition and the
system, what it meant to be a task participant and proudly owning it, and I used to be there for
the ladies as somebody who went by way of 5 years with the staff.”

After a single season again at UBC, Parhar determined she wished proceed to
discover her profession choices, deciding to surrender the sport as soon as once more, pack up
and transfer to England to pursue a level in regulation. And as the game would have
it, hockey discovered her once more.

“I used to be sitting in England in the course of the pandemic, ready for a prepare in
pouring rain, simply two months away from graduating in May, once I acquired
one other cellphone name from Graham. It had been two years since I final coached,
and he requested me if I’m coming residence and if I’d be capable of coach within the
upcoming yr,” Parhar recollects. “Of course, I say sure, and I’m going to coaching
camp and see the gamers, and immediately that zeal got here speeding again.”

Since then, she’s been capable of not solely present teaching on the hockey facet,
but in addition carry her expertise of being a former participant that thought that they had
nothing left to provide to the game, earlier than realizing the significance of
sticking along with her ardour.

This previous yr, on high of holding the function of assistant coach with the
Thunderbirds, Parhar additionally continued to teach inside the neighborhood with the
Vancouver Female Ice Hockey Association. At the neighborhood degree, she’s
continues giving again and supporting younger ladies in hockey, very like how
she was supported rising up.

“For a number of feminine hockey gamers now, they didn’t have a feminine function
mannequin, so now that I’m in that place, I consider how cool it have to be for
these ladies to develop up having a task mannequin that they’ll actually relate to,”
Parhar says.

At the top of the day, though it wasn’t all the time her plan to be a coach,
Parhar is having fun with each second of it, and dealing to share her experiences
with hockey and what it has meant to her in spite of everything these years.

“It’s always been for the kids,” Parhar concludes. “To have somebody they’ll
see that appears like them, as tall as them, I wish to be there for the ladies
and present them that each one they want is the proper vitality, positivity and
dedication.”