By Dan Plouffe
Inspiration, role model and builder. Coach, mentor and friend.
Those were key descriptors used by members of the hockey community to describe the work of former Carleton Ravens and University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s hockey head coach Shelley Coolidge.
“My experience playing university hockey was awesome, and I’d say Shelley was the biggest part of that,” says Danika Smith, who served as captain under Coolidge for the Gee-Gees five years ago. “She was just a really good role model, and she’s somebody who I talk to now when I’m working if I’m stuck or second-guessing myself. I can always call Shelley.”
While there were certainly high moments during her 11 seasons coaching varsity hockey in the capital – four national championships appearances and one national final amongst them – Coolidge’s success as a coach can’t be measured in wins and losses.
“She loves hockey and she loves coaching, but she also really loves empowering people and she loves giving people opportunities to grow,” underlines Smith, who now works behind the scenes assisting numerous Gee-Gees teams and clubs as student-athlete services officer at uOttawa. She’s also coached for the Ottawa Girls Hockey Association and teaches skating and hockey development for City of Ottawa.
“We went through coaching clinics and we were given opportunities to volunteer and to work with kids. At the time I didn’t quite realize it – we just thought we were doing it for community development – but you learn so much from that,” Smith notes. “Shelley wasn’t just a coach, she saw the bigger picture. She wasn’t just coaching us as hockey players, she was trying to give us the opportunity to become leaders.”
For Coolidge, the biggest victories come from seeing a kid who never thought they’d have a hope getting through university graduate, and seeing her players go on to become leaders in hockey, mothers who now coach their kids, teachers, nurses, scientists and doctors.
“It’s inspiring for me to see them find that career path,” signals Coolidge, a past Hockey Canada manager of female hockey development who joined the Gee-Gees in 2003 and then the Ravens in 2009.
“Sport is a vehicle,” she adds. “In life, we have far too few females in leadership roles.”
Many coaches many know their Xs and Os, but possessing a way to inspire athletes to be their best beyond the rink requires a special touch, Smith highlights.
To explain how Coolidge managed to do that, she tells a story about how she and a few teammates would greet parents the morning of hockey camps they were helping their coach run.
“We used to have competitions to see if we could talk to somebody as long as Shelley could and we lost every single time,” laughs the 28-year-old who won a ball hockey world championship with Team Canada in 2013. “She just has this ability to connect with people, and to find out what they were passionate about. That’s how that connection happened. People feel safe to go to her and talk to her. Her door was always open and you can go and chat.”
Ravens departure shocks many
With no official announcement made by the university that Coolidge was leaving, the quiet nature of a hiring notice for Ravens women’s hockey head coach in March caught many in the hockey community off-guard and hinted that the split may not have been entirely amicable. In reality, both Coolidge and Carleton athletics agreed that a new direction would be best.
“It’s a discussion,” Coolidge describes. “It was about: how does the program take the next step? I care way too much about the game and for the opportunity for it to continue to grow and develop, so you’ve got to look at who’s the person who can do that?”
With the consistent national success of the Ravens basketball teams and the men’s hockey team breaking into nationals this season, it’s clear Carleton carries very high performance standards, Coolidge adds, and a 1-15-4 record in the last season of her contract as coach was not helpful.
“Obviously we want this program to succeed competitively as well,” indicates Carleton athletic director Jennifer Brenning. “The student-athletes are doing well academically, they’re being great role models, but we want this program to compete too against the McGills and Montréals and Ottawa U’s.”
Coolidge cared deeply about the program and the welfare of her student-athletes, Brenning adds, which made it “very difficult” to say goodbye to someone who’d contributed so much.
“She’s an incredible individual. Very hard-working,” Brenning details. “I know she’s going on to do other really great things and I want to wish her all the best.”
Coach’s next steps TBD
The likelihood of Coolidge appearing behind another CIS bench as the next step in her hockey journey the doesn’t sound overly high.
“I look at the number of hours I spent at the hockey rink, day-in and day-out, and not only days, but night-in, night-out,” Coolidge states, mentioning that investing her time in a position that could allow her to retire sooner seems compelling.
As word spread about her departure from Carleton, Coolidge very quickly received messages from contacts about contract opportunities, and has had a few interviews for positions that could keep her in Ottawa. There were also many more messages of thanks.
“It’s been a real outpouring of support,” outlines Coolidge, who’s joined the Gloucester Devils as a volunteer manager for their April 6-12 National Ringette League championships, back in her home province of Saskatchewan.
Coolidge was particularly touched by a note she receive from Brittany Privée, a former McGill player during Coolidge’s days at uOttawa. Privée said that Coolidge was the lead force that drove her to become an assistant coach with the Université de Montréal Carabins program.
“To see somebody she felt was a powerful female behind a bench leading a team to a CIS championship final, and to watch our team go from being the underdog all season to competing in that (2004) final game was really inspirational for her,” Coolidge relays. “I had no idea that I’d made that kind of impact.”
Proud to see women’s game develop
With a hint of wonder, Coolidge recounts the tremendous change she’s witnesses in women’s hockey since she first became involved, as a teenager in the early 1970s. At the time, the climate was such that her provincial and national organizations carried the attitude that girls simply didn’t play hockey, and that there was no need to develop female programs for that reason.
“I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in hockey and especially in women’s hockey,” Coolidge underlines. “It’s great to see more and more these opportunities that young women are getting to go to school and get a scholarship to play the game that apparently we weren’t able to play 30 years ago.”