Moose Jaw coaching assistant breaking down gender barriers
When Olivia Howe was offered an opportunity to work behind the scenes with the Moose Jaw Warriors, she had no idea it would become front-page news.
“Honestly, it took me by surprise,” the WHL team’s new coaching assistant says. “I didn’t think it would be that crazy and get that much attention. (People) are trying to promote more females in the game and whatnot so I guess it was big news and it kind of took off.”
Did it ever. The small-market Warriors were inundated with media requests after they announced Howe’s hiring in the fall.
Why all the fuss? Because the Moose Jaw native — a former NCAA standout — is the lone female coach in the WHL and the first in its history.
“To be honest, I knew it would garner some attention,” says Warriors GM Alan Millar, who noted an increasing female presence in the male-dominated sports world — including 11 assistant coaches in the NBA.
“We have NHL teams in Toronto, Seattle and Anaheim that have added female scouts to their staff. We looked at all those things and thought it was great for the game. Having Olivia here in Moose Jaw with her background, the timing just all seemed to fit.”
The Warriors initially invited Howe to training camp as a guest coach after Millar had become familiar with her career at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., where she spent four years.
Howe went on to do some coaching with the now-defunct junior women’s team at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox. Prior to university, she had spent four years with the Notre Dame Hounds, captaining the female midget AAA team to an Esso Cup national title in 2011.
Over the years, Howe has volunteered as a minor-hockey coach, working with young girls in Moose Jaw and helping run local camps. She also has expanded into scouting female players for the Canadian and American university ranks.
“She’s passionate about the game,” Millar says.
It showed as Howe worked with the Warriors’ prospects in training camp, conducting drills and helping run the bench for scrimmages. She also sat in on meetings with the coaches and scouts.
“She had great presence,” Millar continues. “She had a different perspective on the game and she was eager. From there it just kind of evolved. We came up with that coaching assistant position and sat down with Olivia to see what she thought. She was excited.”
Howe wasn’t prepared for what came next in terms of media demands. However, she did recognize a bigger picture, calling it “a very big positive” for the game.
“It kind of ended up getting out everywhere all over Canada,” Howe, 25, says. “It’s (about) awareness. Maybe other females will see it. Hopefully they’ll have the courage to try and do the same thing.”
Those sentiments could also apply to other junior teams. The Warriors made the first move by offering Howe a form of coaching internship, thus taking advantage of a previously untapped resource.
“This opportunity evolved for Olivia because of who she is, her background in the game, her knowledge of the game,” Millar says. “We were very impressed with her at training camp. Our players were impressed with her knowledge of the game.”
After she graduated from university in 2016, Howe initially had designs on continuing to play at the pro level in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.
The CWHL ended up closing its doors last spring, but Howe had resigned herself to life after hockey.
“I’d be out there not really making a lot and having to pay a lot to be living out there (with a pro team),” says Howe, who now has a full-time position as a sales rep with a Regina-based transportation company. “I took a job instead and it was definitely a really hard decision. I still miss it every day. I would do anything to be around the rink. I love the coaching side of things. It’s keeping me at the rink and in the game.”
Howe serves as the Warriors’ eye in the sky for home games at Mosaic Place, taking notes from the press box and meeting with the other coaches between periods. She attends as many practices as her day job allows, working with the players on skill development.
“They were good right from the start,” says Howe, who grew up playing on a girls’ team that competed against boys. That arrangement only lasted for “a couple years” — until there were enough girls to form their own league.
“As a young kid, everyone was kind of equal at that point,” she recalls. “As you were getting a little older, the boys were getting a little faster and stronger. It pushed us to try and keep up with them. I quite enjoyed it.”
Howe is involved in most aspects of the team’s operations under bench boss Tim Hunter, a former NHL player and coach.
“It has been a very wild experience,” Howe says. “It’s so much different than anything I’ve been around. In female hockey you’re never really around the whole trade side of things and having age limits and whatnot and trying to manage your roster. It opened my eyes to how they do things.”