What goes into hosting the national U Sports women’s ice hockey championship?

With UW hosting the U Sports Women’s National Hockey Championship set to take place March 20-23 in Elmira, you may be wondering what exactly goes into planning such a large-scale national event. 

A group of nine students were hand-picked by upper management and staff within the UW athletics department to be student leads for various committees created on an as-needed basis as a result of UW hosting this tournament. All student leads are in their upper years of recreation and leisure studies or recreation and sports business studies. They collectively agreed that this is a great opportunity to expand their skill set as well as gain valuable experience managing and leading.

So, what are the committees, and what are they in charge of? There are four different committees and each is composed of two to three student leads: team services, marketing and sponsorship, sport development, and volunteer management. 

Team services are being spearheaded by Isaac Watsa, Connor McKellar, and Cole Sheppard. The three are all students in the recreation and sports business program, with Watsa and McKellar being fourth-year students and Sheppard a third-year student. The main priority of this committee is to ensure that all teams involved have a positive tournament experience. 

“The main priority of our committee is to ensure that once the athletes arrive, all they have to worry about is performing and succeeding on the ice. Nothing should matter to them besides playing hockey,” Watsa said. This can include ensuring accommodations are up to U Sports travel standards, and that the athletes are well aware of available amenities throughout the tournament. 

“This also includes the officiating staff, which are considered to be a team within themselves, similar to the athletes in attendance,” McKellar added. “We want to ensure that their focus is purely on their task of officiating.” 

Most of their work will take place when the tournament officially begins. Before that, McKellar shared that all they can do “is plan accordingly as far as purchasing materials and planning logistics.” With eight of the nation’s top women’s hockey teams and a team of officials in attendance, the team services committee will indeed have their hands full. However, they shared with confidence that they would be able to achieve their goal of providing a positive experience for the participating athletes and officiating staff. 

The marketing and sponsorship committee is being led by two fourth-year recreation and sports business students: Amber Simons and Miles Lowry. Simons shared that a large majority of their work takes place before the tournament starts, including landing sponsorships, meeting ticket sale targets, as well as reaching out to sponsors who have been involved with UW athletics in the past, and building new relationships with community members. 

“A large goal of our marketing committee is to ensure we are marketing to the right people,” Simons said. “We want to ensure that we are getting the youth involved, specifically local hockey leagues and teams. To do this we have taken various approaches including coupon codes for tickets, and other promotional campaigns.” To exemplify this, on Jan. 23, the UW men’s hockey team played Wilfrid Laurier University in its annual “school day game,” in which over 400 youth were in attendance from four different elementary schools across the region; whom were directly invited by UW athletics. 

This seemed to be a great turnout, and if the marketing/advertising committee can carry on with this momentum, it seems as if they can achieve at least one of their marketing goals for the March tournament: hosting a national tournament with a large turnout from youth within the Waterloo Region community. 

Staying on the topic of involving the community, specifically the youth, the committee of sport development is led by fifth-year recreation and leisure studies student Sarah Dunbar and third-year recreation and sports business management student Diane Choi. This committee is unique within itself as it seems to be attempting to fill the long-standing gap of lack of representation within athletics, not only as far as women’s sports at the next level, but also doing their part to ensure that sport is “inclusive for all.” This includes equipment drives, hockey clinics for members of the Indigenous community, meet and greets with U Sports athletes, etc. 

Dunbar and Choi shared that the motto of their committee or the motto for the overall nationals event as a whole is “see them be them.” “The idea of playing women’s sports at the next level has not been pushed as much for female youth as it is for males, we want to ensure that people are made well aware of women’s hockey not only at the U Sports level but beyond on a professional level is a realistically attainable goal for young girls playing the sport that they love.” 

Dunbar and Choi said that the “see them be them” movement is not solely limited to athletics. “We want to make it clear to all that within women’s sports there are many opportunities, whether it is officiating, managing, or playing, we just want to open the community’s eyes to the beauty of women’s sports at the university level and beyond.” The majority of the work within this committee Dunbar and Choi shared “can be overwhelming at times.” This comment alludes to a large number of people to reach out to and the various available avenues, but they shared that “[their] overall goal is to make an impact and spread the awareness of all the opportunities available to them within women’s sport.” So far, it seems as if they are doing just that! 

The fourth and final committee is the volunteer management committee led by two fourth-year recreation and sports business students Logan Landriualt and Noah DeSario. With a tournament as large as this with hundreds of players, support staff, and coaches, not to mention the hundreds of fans that will be in attendance on the tournament days, having a plethora of volunteers is essential to ensure it runs smoothly and that everyone involved has a positive experience. 

Landriault shared that “[they] are starting from ground zero” and that it is the responsibility of him and his committee to create a “master schedule” that includes all volunteers and their assigned tasks within those roles. “Within the role of volunteering, there are many different opportunities/tasks that need to be fulfilled, we want to ensure that people are assigned to tasks that fit their experience or also their goals within volunteering,” Landriualt said. This comment was made alluding to the idea that many students or individuals of all ages can use this national tournament as an opportunity to gain experience in event management.  

When asked about the ideal number of volunteers they are shooting for, Landriault shared that “there isn’t a magic number” as they just want to ensure opportunities are present for all who are interested, regardless of their level of experience and whether or not they are from UW. 

With an event as large as this, having a strong base of volunteers is essential, so if you are looking to get involved and support UW athletics, visit the UW athletics website and fill out the volunteer form! 

In wrapping up the conversation, the question was posed to the student committee members: what does a successful tournament look like?  Unsurprisingly, their answers were largely based on their committees, but can largely be categorized into three broad categories: more exposure to women’s sports at the next level, a positive experience for all in attendance, and a strong turnout from students, alumni, and community members. 

Through our interview with the committee members, it was clear to see that these students have a very strong dynamic and work exceptionally well as a team. It is people like this, working behind the scenes, that make athletic events on a national level like this possible here at the UW.