Squamish Minor Hockey Association

Squamish Minor Hockey Association (SMHA) and their staff of passionate volunteer coaches are dedicated to developing young athletes in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor of British Columbia. With programs ranging from grassroots to competitive hockey, the SMHA aims to provide players of all levels with a great experience on and off the ice.

Tasked to deliver a comprehensive Player & Coach Development Program to their membership, Technical Director Jordan McCarl turned to The Coaches Site to provide high-quality, accessible resources to his staff and ensure that each coach had an opportunity to contribute to the program's growth.

We caught up with Jordan to learn how he and the association have leveraged TCS's group membership to help deliver an enhanced experience to their organization.

The foundation of the association's locker space is a clipboard for drill sharing. In addition to McCarl sharing the drills that he uses on the ice, the SMHA coaches are encouraged to record their own drills and upload them to The Coaches Site. To date, there have been more than 70 resources posted from SMHA coaches and McCarl anticipates this to continue to grow next season.

"Next, we're looking to add more progressions and regressions to our locker. Some of our newer coaches aren't sure how to take a drill a step back or progress it forward for more advanced players, so I'm looking to lean on our more experienced coaches to share how they teach different aspects of the game".

McCarl also noted that creating alignment within the association is incredibly important - but historically has been difficult to accomplish. To support his efforts, McCarl has used the group's locker to create clipboards for all the association's age categories. The curated resources include premium TCS+ presentations, contributor articles and even drills from their drill share group.

These age-appropriate clipboards allow coaches to easily find information that's relevant to their team and ensures that all staff members are working from the same playbook.

As a female skills coach, TCS gave me the opportunity to connect with other coaches, build my confidence, knowledge of the game, and a community of support. The wide variety of topics has provided ideas to develop the players, and TCS has helped our association focus on the development of both coaches and players while sharing knowledge within our hockey community.

You can gather great information on TCS from a variety of different sources to gain new insights and incorporate into your practice plans immediately. It is certainly my “go to” coaching site, as new content is added daily. Jordan's work on the group locker has also been helpful in sharing content between coaches and keeping everyone on track.

The Coaches Site has been a great resource for me as a coach. It not only helps me fully understand our practice plans, but also gives me the confidence to execute them effectively. In addition, having access to drill videos from our Technical Director and other coaches in the association has allowed me to quickly get up to speed on how to run each drill and adapt them for my team.