Serving as head coach of Canada's National Women's Team, Laura Schuler not only brings a remarkable number of credentials to her position behind the bench, but she's also a true pioneer of the female game.
Indeed, the Scarborough, Ont., native is an alumna of the Canadian contingent that claimed the silver medal at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, the first Olympics to feature women's hockey, and also played in both the COWHL (Central Ontario Women's Hockey League) and NWHL (National Women's Hockey League), which both preceded the organization in its current form, the CWHL (Canadian Women's Hockey League).
Playing alongside Hockey Hall of Famers such as Geraldine Heaney and Angela James, her involvement in the former leagues helped lay the foundation for women's hockey in Canada Competing with and against several of her teammates from Canada's National Women's Team, Schuler fondly reflects on her playing days with the NWHL'S Brampton Thunder.
"Of course it was fun, really exciting," Schuler said during an interview after practice at Canada's National Women's Under-18 Team selection camp, held in August in Rockland, Ont. "The calibre of players at that time included Karen Nystrom, Cheryl Pounder, Vicky Sunohara, Geraldine Heaney and Angela James. There were so many Canadian national team players."
"The talent was distributed (among) a few teams and games were very competitive, similar in intensity to Canada versus U.S. games," Schuler continued. "Every time you met, it was incredibly intense."
Like many of the players from that era when women's hockey was planting its roots within the Canadian sports world, Schuler has moved from leadership roles on the ice, to leadership roles off the ice, still helping to build a strong foundation for the next generation of women's hockey heroes.
Schuler is proud of her fellow National Women's Team and NWHL alumnae, who have assumed positions in the female game ranging from administration and management to coaching and officiating.
"You see what Sami Jo Small has done. I know that Donna-Lynn Rosa did a lot, too. Although it is not at the CWHL level, Sunohara and Nystrom are coaching," Schuler pointed out. "It is nice to see that these women are still part of the game. They are giving back to the sport. It is a tremendous opportunity for these young women to get to play underneath these icons."
For the 2011-12 season, Schuler was head coach of Canada's National Women's Under-22/Development Team, which claimed the bronze medal at the 2012 Meco Cup in Germany. During the training camp in summer 2011, she coached the likes of current CWHL stars Bailey Bram, Laura McIntosh and Natalie Spooner. She has also coached current national team members such as Brianne Jenner and Laura Fortino, and is thrilled to see these up-and-coming women's hockey stars working hard for a spot on the Canadian team that will compete at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
"When Jenn Wakefield was a kid, I had done some private lessons for her. She was around nine years old and I knew she was special," Schuler recalled of the Canada's National Women's Team member who is currently centralized for Olympic training in Calgary, Alta. "Back then, I could see her making the national team. She had it back then."
"Players like Fortino and Spooner, I only coached them at the training camp in 2011 but it was a great opportunity to coach some of these players," Schuler added of two other accomplished Canadian players who are centralized with Canada's National Women's Team for the 2013-14 season. "You would see their talents and you knew they would go far."
When not involved with Canada's National Women's Program. Schuler serves on former Team Canada head coach Shannon Miller's coaching staff for the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. Miller actually coached Schuler at those first-ever Olympic Games to feature women's hockey some sixteen years ago.
"For seven of the 11 years that I was with the Canadian national team, she coached me," Schuler said. She is one of the best coaches and it was a great opportunity to play for her."
"The whole reason for going to UMD was to be mentored by her," Schuler continued. "In my eyes, she is one of the best coaches in the world today. She and Melody Davidson are two people that I look up to. She has five NCAA titles, more than any other coach at that level."
You always learn from her, and coaching alongside her, you see she has a gift. At the international level, I could only hope to be as good as her."
The young ladies who are being coached by Schuler on Canada's National Women's Under-18 Team feel the same way about her, as Schuler does about Miller.
"It is pretty cool to have someone (like Schuler) to look up to," said Micah Hart, who recently played for Canada's National Women's Under-18 Team for a three-game series against the United States in Lake Placid, N.Y. "She knows what it takes, as she has been in my position before. She played where you want to play."
Karley Heffernan, who scored the gold-medal winning goal for Canada at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women's World Championship, agrees wholeheartedly.
"You learn something new every time, and you do not take it for granted," she said of Schuler. "You try to absorb everything and take every opportunity you can out of it."
Her role as a coach and a mentor for the next generation of women's hockey stars is one Schuler is proud to accept. The opportunity to share her knowledge with an eager group of young players, who may one day wear the Team Canada jersey at the Olympics, or perhaps lace up their skates for the Canadian Women's Hockey League, brings with it great reward for Schuler.
"We were pioneers when you look back at it," Schuler said. "We were part of the first set of women in the Olympics … Growing up, we did not really have the role models in place. Today, to see how far the game has come and how talented these girls are, how much better they have become, it is exciting to continue to be a part of that."
