Greater Vernon Minor Hockey is thrilled to launch BC’s first Female Coach Development Program to train, engage and retain our U15, U18, and Alumni female athletes as on-ice helpers and coaches to build a strong culture of leadership within our female hockey programs. With funding from a Viasport community grant, we intend to train and certify these athletes as coaches, provide bursaries for post-secondary education, and honoraria for non-parent female coaches to give our female hockey programs a uniquely specialized approach to development.
Female Coach Development Conference - August 18-20, 2023
Barrier-free Coach Training and Development
Bursary Program for GVMHA Female Athletes still in secondary school
Honorarium for Non-parent Female Coaches
Female Coach Development Conference - August 18-20, 2023
GVMHA and BC Hockey are working together on an in-person Female Coach Development Weekend for Female Coaches. This will be a fun and empowering space for female coaches to immerse themselves into coaching, collaborate with their peers, and build confidence instructing skills and drills. Featuring a keynote address on building culture and Hockey Canada’s “We Are Coaches” Female-specific Coach 2 training from BC Hockey’s Female Coach Mentor Whitney Juszkiewicz, multiple on-ice training sessions, prizes, a social hour, and a kick-off event for Esso Fun Days 2023!
Friday August 18
5:00pm-6:00pm - Civic Room - Key Note Address: Culture of Leadership with Whitney Juszkiewicz
2:30pm-3:45pm - KTPN - On Ice Coach Training - Coaches Only
4:00pm-6:15pm - KTPN - On Ice Coach Training - With Female Players
Sunday August 20
10:00am-11:00am - Civic Room - Esso Fun Days Kick-Off
11:30am-12:45pm - KTPN - Esso Fun Days First Icetime
Barrier-free Coach Training and Development
GVMHA is committed to an accessible female program wherever possible, trying to eliminate barriers preventing women and girls from reaching their full potential as athletes, leaders, and coaches. With the FCDP, female coaches will be able to register and take prerequisite training, Coach 2 training, and participate in the Coach Development Conference for FREE! Under the old model coaches would typically pay out of pocket and be reimbursed for any relevant training by GVMHA, with the FCDP future coaches only need to register for the program and will then be provided a link for our own online training completely free of charge.
Bursary Program for GVMHA Female Athletes still in secondary school
The most important part of having a Culture of Leadership for GVMHA is integrating our current players while they’re still playing in our association. As an incentive, FCDP female players in Grades 9-12 will receive a bursary worth $250 per season for their volunteer work as on-ice helpers at practice (players in grades 11 and 12 can be rostered as On-ice Helpers or Assistant Coaches). For players in grade 9, this means 4 years of bursaries totalling $1000 towards post-secondary education by the time they graduate, but more importantly it also means 4 years of valuable coaching experience before graduating from High School and Minor Hockey. Eligibility for each years’ bursary depending on attendance, on-ice helpers must be present at 60% of their team’s practice ice times.
Honorarium for Non-parent Female Coaches
We will endeavour to recruit Non-parent Female coaches for our female teams whenever possible. Our goal is to have a true female program coached entirely by GVMHA female alumni at every age and level, giving our program a multi-generational culture of leadership, and a distinctive winning brand of on-ice performance. These coaches will be paid an honorarium of various amounts depending on level coached (rep, rec, age) and position (Head coach, Assistant Coach).
