Julie Stevens still remembers waking up before sunrise to lace up her skates as the only girl on a mixed hockey team in rural Ontario.<\/p>\n
A wooden roof blanketed the arena, where the boards were twice as high as she was. She had to shovel the choppy ice herself before batting a puck around and doing what she loved most.<\/p>\n
Like many small-town Canadian kids with big dreams, Stevens would do just about anything for the sport. Unfortunately, for many young girls and other minorities, hockey \u2014 among other sports \u2014 hasn\u2019t always been particularly accessible or welcoming.<\/p>\n
Stevens, Associate Professor in Brock University\u2019s Department of Sport Management and Special Advisor for the Canada Games to President Gervan Fearon, has recently been elected to a two-year term as a director on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF), where she hopes to \u201cgrow the game of hockey\u201d \u2014 for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really humbled that I\u2019ve been elected to the OHF Board at a time of crisis for sport and of significant challenge for the Federation,\u201d says Stevens. \u201cI see my role as providing service, strategy and oversight, as well as capitalizing on opportunities that will help the OHF come out of these challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n
The OHF is a branch of the national hockey federation, Hockey Canada, and serves as the governing body with seven members, including:<\/p>\n
Stevens, a former all-star player from Queen\u2019s University, volunteer coach for the Brock Badgers women\u2019s hockey team and scholar with more than 25 years of academic research on the sport, is well suited for the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a player, coach and hockey mom, I have an understanding of community in minor hockey roots,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you combine it with my research, it\u2019s a unique portfolio of hockey background and experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says her most meaningful memories of the sport are when she made the switch to an all-girls team at the age of 13, where her parents would drive 40 minutes away from their hometown of Erin, Ont., so she could play with other girls.<\/p>\n
Stevens breaks her childhood memories of playing hockey into two categories.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne is kind of social and identifying with other girls \u2014 it took a while for my family and I to find other girls I could play with,\u201d she says. \u201cThe other is the typical one: playing outside in the icy cold of winter, especially on frozen puddles in the fields around my home.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the things she\u2019s most looking forward to in her new position on the OHF Board is collaborating with other leaders of the sport in Ontario to help expand the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe OHF Board of Directors already has many experienced directors who have contributed to many different areas of hockey over different years,\u201d says Stevens. \u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous opportunity for me to work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n