By Lauren Zandee via Western Hockey League

Olivia Howe is still trying to process everything that’s happened since she became the first woman on a Western Hockey League coaching staff.

“I didn’t realize it was going to be this big of a deal,” Howe said. “It’s really just blown up.”

Friday, October 11, 2019, will go into the WHL history books as the ground-breaking day the Moose Jaw Warriors announced the addition of Howe to the Club’s coaching staff.

The hope – the goal – is for this to become the trend, not an outlier.

“I’ve been around the hockey world forever, so I know that there are always females trying to break barriers and get their foot in the door,” Howe said. “But I think there can definitely be more done. There are so many opportunities out there.

“Just because it’s a male sport doesn’t mean there needs to be males everywhere in the business. You can add females in there and they bring a different mindset and perspective and they are just as knowledgeable as men can be and everyone wants to learn the game and help each other out. So, I think having females out there will be great and I think hopefully they [professional hockey organizations] are starting to do a little bit more of that.”

Howe, a National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) hockey graduate from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., played from 2012-2016, winning a national championship in 2014. Prior to her college career, the Moose Jaw, Sask. native played for the Notre Dame Hounds program in Wilcox, Sask., winning the Esso Cup national championship in 2011.

Since her formative years, Howe has coached up and down the community hockey ranks, including with her hometown Club as a guest coach during the Warriors’ training camp.

“I’m just trying to take it day by day and figure out what I have to offer and the expectations that are on my back and hopefully, I can live up to that [responsibility],” Howe said.

“I’ve coached everywhere from initiation to all the way up to high school hockey, so this level [major junior] is one step above that and it will be great to work with the coaching staff like Tim Hunter especially. He’s been all over the NHL and coached the World Junior team and he has so much knowledge. So, I think to pick his brain will be really fun and I think learning the men’s game at this level is going to be very interesting.”

As the first female coach to break ground in the WHL, the 25-year-old Howe is paving the way for other women in the hockey world while simultaneously joining an elite group of women who have forged their own paths. Danièle Sauvageau was the first female coach appointed in the history of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in 1999-2000 and draws similar comparisons to Howe.

Moreover, four-time Olympic champion and fellow Saskatchewan native, hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser joined the Toronto Maple Leafs as the Club’s assistant director of player development in 2018, tasked with monitoring Leafs prospects in the WHL, among other duties. The Maple Leafs also hired Noelle Needham as an amateur scout for the organization, shaking up the traditional “boys club” mentality of professional hockey.

Less than a month ago, NHL Seattle made history by hiring Hall of Famer and Olympian, Cammi Granato, as the first female professional scout.

When Howe reflected on her inspirations growing up in the hockey world and sports in general, two women immediately came into her mind.

“Growing up here in Saskatchewan, it was Kelly Bouchard,” Howe said about her local hockey instructor. “She ran hockey camps all the time and I always attended those and I always really looked up to her so much.”

On a professional scale, it was the top female tennis player in the world Howe admired.

“I always looked up to Serena Williams,” Howe said. “I thought she was always paving the way for females and she did so much for females in the sport of tennis and really any sport, so just seeing her succeed and having a great career inspired me.”

Like she drew inspiration from Bouchard and Williams, many young girls will now look to Howe as a pioneer in major junior hockey and beyond, proving the need for diversity and inclusion within male-dominated industries not only for inspiration, but for leadership.

As ecstatic as Howe is with her newfound opportunity, she isn’t satisfied just yet.

“I think it can be [a steppingstone] in my career,” Howe said. “I would love to get more involved in the male side of hockey and that’s no disrespect to the female side of hockey, I just think it’s [male hockey] a whole new beast to tackle, it’s fun and there are a whole lot more opportunities in the male world. So, I think this can be steppingstone and something will come out of it and I can continue on in my career – may that be with the Warriors still or elsewhere.”

Wherever she ends up, one thing is for certain: Howe is a trailblazer and will be an inspiration to women in the future, be they in hockey or beyond.