COUGARS COACH EXCELS BEHIND BENCH
Initially barred from playing minor hockey, a young Hodges was undeterred
Sarah Hodges has played or coached hockey for most of her life.
Yet, the 21st-year head coach of the University of Regina Cougars women’s hockey team wishes she could add one season to a resume that is as lengthy as it is impressive.
Nearing her sixth birthday, while growing up in Kincardine, Ont., Hodges wanted to make her debut in the minor hockey ranks. However, she and two other girls were denied the opportunity.
“I wasn’t allowed to play my first year,” she recalls. “My parents signed me up but the minor hockey association wouldn’t let me play. (Minor hockey people) had a meeting and decided we couldn’t play.
“I don’t remember a ton of it. I do remember being extremely upset. They had to come to the door to deliver the letter, and I think I cried.” She wouldn’t give up., though. “There was an outdoor rink,” she continues, “and I also played road
hockey with my brother (Caleb) every day. I got my hockey fix that way.”
The following season, Hodges — who was known as Sarah Howald at the time — was able to play minor hockey, as were other females, but only in the house league.
From those modest beginnings emerged someone who would become very accomplished and influential in her favourite sport.
Hodges’ prowess as a player was such that she played for the Big Green of Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, N.H.
In addition to playing defence or forward, depending on the circumstances, she also excelled as a javelin thrower on the track and field team.
During her senior hockey season of 1995-96, she was named the team’s captain and a first-team Ivy League all-star. With 146 career points, she is still among the team’s all-time top 10.
Although Hodges wrapped up her career as a player in 1996, she was only getting started as far as her involvement in the game.
She aspired to coach, and to teach, and therefore resolved to earn an education degree — having already earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Dartmouth.
Upon being accepted into the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, she returned to Saskatchewan and an area of the country she had grown to love.
Caleb attended Grade 12 at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame. While in Grade 6, Hodges visited her brother in Wilcox and was quickly impressed.
“I loved it,” she recalls. “I probably decided then that (Notre Dame) was where I wanted to go.”
Fast forward to the fall of 1990. After playing on boys’ teams back home, Hodges decided to attend Notre Dame for Grades 11 and 12.
“I contacted (Notre Dame) before I told my parents,” she says with a laugh. “I kind of had it all set up. The coach from Notre Dame called my parents and they had no idea what was going on.
“I love the prairies.”
So she returned in 1996 when, in addition to studying education at the University of Regina, she worked in the dorms at Notre Dame and, depending on the time of year, coached track and field or junior girls hockey.
The process necessitated a lot of long days, and countless highway miles on the road between Regina and Wilcox, but Hodges immersed herself in the experiences and thoroughly enjoyed them.
Then came 1998, when she received a bachelor’s degree in education and had some decisions to make. One of the options was to teach full-time in Pangman. At the time, though, the University of Regina was founding a women’s hockey team and looking for a coach.
Hodges applied for the position and was hired — the lavish compensation being a $4,500 honorarium. She could have made more money doing virtually anything else, but her priority was to follow her passion.
“I wanted to coach,” she says. “That’s really all there was to it. I loved doing it, and I still love doing it.”
That explains her status as the longest-serving head coach in the Cougars’ athletics program. She was a part-time coach for three years before being given full-time status.
With Hodges behind the bench, the University of Regina has won one Canada West title (in 2001) and qualified for three U Sports national championships (2001, 2002 and 2003). She was named the Canada West coach of the year for 2015-16.
Hodges has also worked for Hockey Canada in varied capacities. Of particular note, she has been the head coach of Canada’s under-18 (2010-11) and under-22 (2008-09) women’s teams. She was also a coach mentor at the Inter-
I wanted to coach. That’s really all there was to it. I loved doing it, and I still love doing it.” SARAH HODGES
national Ice Hockey Federation’s 2013 high-performance camp in England.
Despite all her travels, all roads eventually led back to her adopted home in Regina — and to her family.
She met her future husband, Chris Hodges, when he was a sportscaster for CTV Regina. Duty called one day when he did a story on the Cougars women’s hockey team and was introduced to the head coach.
“One of the things I really looked forward to when I moved to Regina was covering university sports,” says Chris, who started at CTV in September 2003 after spending the previous three hockey seasons as the radio play-by-play voice of the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Grande Prairie Storm.
As one who appreciates the accessibility of university athletes and coaches, Chris quickly made it a priority to focus on the University of Regina teams.
It didn’t hurt that CTV had a weekly segment known as Cougar Chronicles. As a bonus, the Cougars women’s hockey team practised at a twin-arena complex that was near the TV station’s studios on Highway No. 1 East.
“I always say that knowing Sarah has been good for me because of the grounding she brought into my life,” Chris says, “and it was good for her because of the exceptional amount of coverage that it brought to the Cougars women’s hockey team.”
The couple began dating in May 2004, shortly before Grande Prairie was to play host to the Royal Bank Cup — the championship tournament of Canadian junior A hockey.
Chris returned to Grande Prairie for the 10-day event, viewing the trip as the first big test of a burgeoning relationship. Would things fade during his absence?
“I found myself in daily communication with her,” he says, recalling the regular phone calls. “When I got back from Grande Prairie, I think both of us realized that we had to have some structure to it.”
Structure, without unnecessary complexity, has characterized the relationship ever since.
“One time, Sarah asked me if I had a favourite word,” Chris recalls. “I don’t know what it is that I said, but I asked, ‘How about you?’ She said that her favourite word was ‘simple.’ She just likes to make things simple.
“So many people make their lives more complicated than they have to be. With Sarah, there’s no high drama. She’s not high-maintenance. What you see is what you get. She’s real — real, honest and forthright.
“She was a very easy person to fall in love with.”
Chris and Sarah Hodges were married on June 26, 2010. They have two daughters — Annie, nine, and Madison, four — and a beloved canine companion named Nelly.
Nelly joined the family quite by accident, after Hodges was introduced to the growler during a scouting trip to Wilcox last April.
“I can’t say that I found a lot of players,” she says, “but I got a dog.”
Over 21 years, Hodges has found every player who has suited up for the Cougars. She is the common denominator throughout the duration of the program.
“I’ve seen a lot of changes and that’s fine,” she says. “The biggest source of pride is the athletes. We just had a 20th-anniversary reunion and it was cool and a neat experience to be in a room where I had coached everybody. They’re an extension of the family.”
Family is the priority for Hodges, who describes herself on Twitter as “Mother, wife, coach.” She cherishes time spent with Chris, Annie and Madison, while recognizing that the schedule is unconventional.
“Chris is on his own most weekends,” says Hodges, whose team typically plays on Fridays and Saturdays. “I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who think he’s a single dad.
“He knew what he was getting into, for sure. He knows the life. He was a play-by-play guy in Grande Prairie. He knows other people who coach. He gets it and supports it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible.”
Hodges wants her daughters to explore all possibilities as they get older. Although Annie and Madison both play hockey, their mom will be a proud parent regardless of what avenues they pursue.
“Hopefully they live close to me,” she says with a chuckle. “I just hope they find something that makes them happy. Regardless of whether they play hockey or whatever, I just want them to find something that they’re passionate about. I was lucky enough to do that.”
Hodges also knows that her daughters are fortunate. When Annie wanted to play female hockey, for example, the registrations process was a snap.
There weren’t any special meetings, hand-delivered letters or exclusions.
“If she wants to play,” a proud mom says, “she can play.”
Such is the growth of female hockey — to which Hodges continues to contribute, long after those humble beginnings.