The grassroots effort to spread Canada’s game
Hockey Canada’s CEO is philosophical about importance of reaching new communities
Perhaps surprising for a man who dwelled among the hockey elite as head coach of Team Canada and three NHL teams, Tom Renney remains a grassroots hockey guy.
As CEO of Hockey Canada, Renney, who’s from Cranbrook, B.C., has upped the ante on making hockey a game for all Canadians, not just those wearing AAA team blazers and hoping to get drafted into the NHL.
“That approach has got me jobs, and cost me jobs,” Renney says. “I haven’t deviated from that. I started out that way as a young coach, developing, I hope, the whole person, so it’s a bit philanthropic for me, coming back from the NHL and doing this job.”
In the past two years in particular, Renney and Paul Carson, vice-president of membership development, have pushed Canada’s governing hockey body to make the game more inclusive and accessible to all, including those with physical challenges and children new to this country.
Reaching out to new Canadians represents an opportunity for Hockey Canada to grow its registration numbers. According to the latest annual report, Canada had 637,010 registered players in the 2016-17 season, up slightly from the previous year but down 2,000 from a peak of 639,510 in 2014-15.
Male registration (548,469) was the lowest in three years. Female registration was at an all-time high at 88,541, up from 86,925 the previous season.
The numbers aren’t terrible. Doomsday scenarios were being penned for Canadian youth hockey when registrants dipped into the 550,000 range a decade ago.
They’re not soaring, either, especially in the Ottawa area, which has shown declines over the past two years.
“It has flatlined a bit, and that troubles me,” says Renney, 63. “I don’t know that we should ever be satisfied with status quo. I think we should try to elevate those numbers. As we do that, I think we elevate our entire citizenship to have more great people in it.”
All minor sports face challenges getting kids away from their mobile devices and onto the playing fields and ice surfaces.
Families who don’t sign their children up for organized hockey cite the cost of equipment, health risks and the time commitment, but there is an element of rationalization with these explanations.
There’s always risk, Renney suggests, “whether it’s ballet or soccer or hockey.”
To those who balk at the outlay for sticks and skates ...
“It’s expensive to do almost anything — how much is an iPad or a computer?” Renney says. “The greater cost is sitting on the couch and becoming sedentary. That’s the greatest cost of all and we have to avoid that.”
Renney says he’s OK with the fact that some families may choose to enrol their children in sports other than hockey.
“We just want kids active,” he says.
The high cost of top-of-the-line skates and carbon-fibre sticks can make a hockey parent pine for the days when a wooden Hespeler Green Flash stick cost about $3. Today, it’s easy to pay $300 for a stick the pros use, not that it’s necessary.
“Certainly when it comes to equipment, you don’t need the Sidney Crosby helmet or gloves or skates or stick,” Renney says.
“There are choices that allow families to get engaged in hockey for a lot less expense than is often typified.”
That may be true, but due to the protective equipment required, hockey remains vastly more expensive than soccer, baseball or basketball. Hockey Canada and its member organizations are recognizing this by leaning on corporate support for gear to get kids started in the game.
“Our new Canadians want to be Canadians, and what better way than picking up the game of hockey?” Renney says.
Renney points out there is a huge Sikh population in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. The Punjabi population has forged a connection to hockey through the Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi Edition broadcasts. Our own Indigenous population is slowly making inroads in hockey — this past week a girls team from Fort Hope in northwestern Ontario, the Rez Girls 64 Wolves, participated in a peewee tournament in Kanata.
The goal is to continue to grow girls hockey and Indigenous hockey.
Meanwhile, as Canada opens its doors to immigrants, hockey associations are opening their arms.
“We have to go to them,” Renney says. “We can’t just expect them to show up on registration day.
“We have to speak to them about the virtues of sport and athleticism and hockey being part of Canada. We have to work harder at that.”
While competitive hockey isn’t the focus, hockey organizations know that when visible minorities reach junior, college and pro hockey, they become heroes to newcomers who can see themselves reflected in the faces of these players.
The goal: A melting pot on firm ice.