Daysland native coaches at U16 Alberta camp with Olympic medalist

Daysland’s Lindsey Roth had the unique opportunity to coach the Female Team Alberta U16 camp, which took place in Camrose from June 29 to July 2, with none other than two-time Olympic gold medalist Carla MacLeod.

Roth says she was selected to be a coach after attending the Future Leaders Development Program (FLDP) in Sylvan Lake at the end of April.

“The FLDP is a camp that Hockey Alberta puts on for post-secondary students who are seeking scholarship opportunities and want to get involved in coaching hockey.

“There, we spent the weekend doing on-ice and classroom sessions learning how to coach. From there, four girls got picked to coach in the Female Team Alberta U16 Camp with Carla.”

Roth was thrilled about this opportunity, saying, “Having Carla MacLeod as a coach mentor was incredible.

“Her personality makes it so easy to talk to her and ask questions.

“She has so many neat tips and tricks that make coaching seem easy. I am naturally a really shy person when it comes to talking in front of groups so Carla helped me out quite a bit with that.

“She shared a lot of stories with us about her experiences such as playing in the Torino and Vancouver Olympics and assistant coaching Team Japan in the Sochi Olympics.”

Another highlight for Roth was being able to congratulate MacLeod face to face on her upcoming induction into the Canada Games Hall of Honour.

“Carla has done so much for girls’ hockey already and continues to keep giving back to the game.

“She is a role model of mine, and I may not have as much experience as she does, but giving back to the game I spent so long learning and playing would be a great measure of success to me,” she says.

Roth noted that there were 63 young players from all over Alberta attending the Team Alberta camp, selected after an Alberta Cup Challenge in May, and that it was an honour to take part in their development as a coach.

She believes her greatest coaching attribute to be her passion and knowledge of the game.

She says, “I’m so glad I got the opportunity to play college hockey, because the skills and tactics I learned there alone helped me to expand my knowledge at a high performance level, which I now can pass on to younger players.

“My advice to young hockey players would be to work hard for what you want, and don’t be afraid of making mistakes along the way.”

Though she will not be playing for the Northern Institute of Technology Ooks this year while finishing her Business Diploma, Roth plans to keep her love of the game alive by playing for the Irma Junior A Chargers, and hopefully continuing to coach.

Jaimee Russnak
Staff Reporter

Story originally appeared in the July 11, 2017 edition of The Community Press. Available via E-Subscription. To order a back-issue of the paper, call 780-385-6693.