Former U of S Huskie coaching women's national hockey team in New Zealand

Brooke Patron (far right) at practice for the New Zealand Ice Fernz (Courtesy: Facebook/New Zealand Ice Fernz)

Brooke Patron, 29, who hails from the small community of Redvers, Sask., has taken her talents across the world and has been named the Head Coach of the New Zealand Ice Fernz, the country’s national women’s hockey team.

Patron has lived in New Zealand for over six years. She decided to travel after earning her bachelor’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan where she played on the women’s hockey team for three years. She immediately was drawn to the ‘land down under.’

“I went to Australia first then came here and I’ve just stayed in New Zealand until now. It’s a lot like Canada. The people are relaxed and friendly. The terrain is like Canada, just more condensed. You can go surfing, skiing, and mountain biking all the in the same day,” she joked.

However, it did not take long for Patron to miss one aspect of her life in Canada: hockey.

“I’ve played most of my life. It took awhile to figure out that there’s actually ice hockey in New Zealand. I was here for four years, which is a long time to be away from the sport. I was working in Auckland at the time, and I kept telling my co-workers, ‘We should go ice-skating’,” she explained.

“It was a very different scene than in Canada where basically everybody knows how to skate. But in New Zealand, people are holding onto the boards,” said Patron reflecting on her first experience on the ice in her new country of residence.

Her skating talents immediately stood out and she was approached by a man who played in their ‘summer league.’

“He was like ‘You must be Canadian?’ We got talking and he was telling about the summer league. Ever since, I have been getting ingrained into the hockey community here. I started in the summer league and then I found out there’s a women’s league that you can play,” she shared.

Patron went on to play in the women’s league where she learned about their national women’s team, the ‘New Zealand Ice Fernz’ and eventually saw a posting looking for a Head Coach position.

“I was like, ‘I could probably give it a go’ because most of the girls I play with in the women’s league, play on the national team. I felt like I had a good sense of who they were, and I thought changes would be good for the team to be more successful. Then I had a couple of interviews, I got the job, and I was like, ‘Okay this is really happening,” Patron said with a smile.

Patron was hired on in May of this year and is on a one-year contract. During that time, New Zealand will compete at the 2025 IIHF World Championships under Division II - Group B.

“In the IIHF there’s the World Championships for Canada, obviously Sweden, and the [United] States are in that top tier group. New Zealand plays against [countries such as] Australia, Hong Kong, Turkey, Belgium,” Patron explained.

“The teams sound a bit random because you don’t always think about ice hockey but it’s good to see other countries playing hockey [especially] in a country you wouldn’t expect it to be.”

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The hockey landscape is much different in New Zealand and Patron says it is neat to share her Saskatchewan roots with the players.

“Probably the craziest [aspect] to them is how accessible ice time is. Redvers has a rink, Carlyle has a rink, Bellegard has a rink, all within 45 minutes you can probably skate at six different rinks. So that’s the first thing they’re like, ‘That would be crazy’ because here you have to pay 300-400 dollars for an hour of ice time,” Patron shared.

Patron also explained without a governing body such as Hockey Canada, it does put a hindrance on their sport as there is not a lot of funding.

“Most of it is on the player’s dime which sucks but that’s the way it is,” she said.

However, there is hope for the sport. According to the New Zealand Ice Hockey Federation, women’s hockey has grown at an average rate of 15 per cent per year, outpacing the men’s game, over the last five years.

The growth saw a ‘friendly’ match between Australia’s national team and New Zealand known as the Trans-Tasman take place back in October for the first time since 2009. The three-game series is partially treated as a ‘tryout’ for next year’s World’s team.

“We don’t have the funds to bring players all to one rink for a week so we select the team based on what we’ve seen and then we have a weeklong training camp before Worlds this year so we can create some on-ice chemistry,” Patron explained.

Patron is excited about taking on this new role and the challenges it comes with.

“There’s way more of a team dynamic that you have to consider. How will the players react? Do I need to give them some control? Do I need to be reserved here? Do I need to pump them up? Do I need to be critical? It just kind if reading the room and managing people. I guess I’m not quite used to. But I do like the power,” she smirked.

The World Championships will take place in Dunedin, New Zealand beginning on April 14, 2025.