Early Bird Registration Window for the 2021-22 Season

In consideration of the progressive removal of COVID-19 restrictions under BC’s ‘Restart 2.0’ program and with greater freedoms for both adult and youth field hockey participation expected post July 1st, both the FHBC Board of Directors and the FHC Board of Directors have agreed to offer an early bird incentive for those participants considering a return to field hockey activity ahead of the new season and for new participants to the sport of field hockey in BC. Any new registrations purchased on and after July 1st, 2021, are valid for the full 2021-22 season.

Both FHBC and FHC hope that this early bird incentive will encourage athletes, coaches, umpires and officials to return and enjoy the sport we love throughout the summer and carry forward such participation and membership registration into and throughout the 2021-22 season. The early bird initiative window for membership registration with FHBC and FHC ahead of and for the 2021-22 season will open on July 1st, 2021.

Happy Olympic Day – The Mollenhauer Family

Anna and Nancy at the U23 6-Nations tournament June 2018 (Belgium)

In honour of #OlympicDay, let’s celebrate Nancy and Anna Mollenhauer. As a family, they have proudly represented Canadian and British Columbian field hockey in the past and continue to write their names in the history of our sport and our community!

Field hockey has played a big role their family as both Ian (Nancy’s husband, Anna’s dad) and Arden (Nancy’s older daughter, Anna’s sister) have played as well. Nancy was fortunate to enjoy a wonderful run with the national team and, once she retired, continued to play and coach. She represented Canada in two Olympics, Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988.

Anna came through FHBC Regional and Provincial programs which she thoroughly enjoyed and benefitted a great deal from. This helped immensely as she pursued hockey to the next level and became involved with the national team programs.

“We both feel very fortunate to have enjoyed so many wonderful experiences through our sport”, Nancy says. Anna is currently involved with both the NextGen and WNT programs and looks forward to continuing to hone her skills while representing Canada on the international stage. 

Nancy:’s field hockey history:

Nancy coaching Anna (age 4) in Victoria Junior Spring League

  • ’80-81′ – U19 Team BC
    • 1981 Canada Summer Games (gold medal)
  • ’80-84′ – University of Victoria Varsity FH Team
    • 1984 Captured Uvic’s first CIAU National Championship
  • ’81-82′ – U21/U23 Junior National Team
  • ’82-89′ – Canadian Women’s Senior National Team
    • 1983 World Cup (silver medal)
    • 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games (fifth place finish)
    • 1986 World Cup (bronze medal)
    • 1987 Pan American Games (bronze medal, Canadian Team Flag Bearer for opening ceremonies)
    • 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic Games (sixth place)

Anna’s field hockey history

Anna’s first international cap against China January 2019

  • 2013-2017 – Team BC
    • 2013 u15 Team BC White (silver medal)
    • 2014 u15 Team BC Blue (silver medal)
    • 2015 u18 Team BC Blue (silver medal)
    • 2016 u18 Team BC Blue (gold medal)
    • 2017 u18 Team BC Stags (bronze medal)
  • 2017-Present – University of Victoria
    • 2018 National Champions
    • 2019 National Champions
  • 2016-Present – Junior Women’s National Team
    • 2018 Chile Series
    • 2018 u23 6 Nations Tournament (Antwerp Belgium)
  • 2019-Present – Senior Women’s National Team
    • 2019 China Tour (received first senior international cap)
    • 2019 Scotland Tour
    • 2019 FIH Series Final Valencia (silver medal, received best junior player of the tournament)

PHO Order Interpretation (following June 17th PHO Order Revision) – Communique #13

Download the PDF version of this communique here.


Dear Field Hockey BC Members

Following Return to Responsible Play meetings with viaSport BC this week and a subsequent lobby to the Provincial Health Office, I am writing to provide a community update that most significantly again removes the Youth group size limit and associated restriction and returns decision-making to the LSO to determine reasonable Youth Group sizes according to program, play, and facility access. In this case, please refer to point #6 below (noting that Adult group size restrictions remain in place – point #5):

  1. Both Adult members and Youth members may return to Outdoor field hockey activity.
  2. Activity is NO LONGER restricted to a ‘Home Club’ and the associated local outdoor facility(s). Organized Sport travel within BC is now permissible having been re-designated and included under recreational travel within the latest PHO order revision. The ‘Home Club’ restriction is therefore removed.
  3. See point 2 above – Travel is NO LONGER restricted to a ‘Home Club’ and the associated local outdoor facility(s)
  4. Physical Distancing is no longer required for outdoor field hockey activity.
    • This is restricted to the designated field of play AND field infrastructure (team bench areas). Off-field physical distancing 2m and associated COVID safety plans must still be adhered to.
  5. Adult group size on any single outdoor field facility should be restricted to within the ‘Rule of 50’. This group size limit includes Coaches, Officials, Managers, Trainers, and other Supporting Personnel.
  6. There is no maximum group size for Youth (Under 22) to allow for greater flexibility in delivery.
    • Subject to Municipal and/or Operator/Owner rules and regulations, LSO’s may now decide what is reasonable in the numbers of Youth members (Under 22) able to access a single outdoor field of play facility. Municipal or Operator rules and regulations must be adhered to which may require adherence to specific group size limit set by the Municipality or facility Operator.
  7. There is no need or requirement to form participant cohorts.
  8. With no requirement for cohort modelling, members may interact within a training and/or game play environment.
  9. COVID Safety Plans must still be in place and adhered to.
  10. Attestation Form completion ahead of participant activity is still required.
  11. Outdoor Spectators (up to a maximum of 50) are now permitted. Municipal or Operator rules and regulations must be adhered to which may require adherence to a specific spectator size limit set by the Municipality or facility Operator.
  12. The requirement for a new PSO Responsible Return to Play Framework aligning to ‘Restart 2.0’ still requires further viaSport BC and Provincial Government guidance.

For further detail regarding Field Hockey’s COVID-19 response and to access information on the Provincial Government Restart 2.0 plan, as well as Responsible Return to Play Framework documentation, please refer to the Field Hockey BC website at: https://fieldhockeybc.com/covid-19-response/. Further reference material can be found on the viaSport BC website at https://www.viasport.ca/return-sport.

Yours in sport,

Mark Saunders
Executive Director
Field Hockey BC
June 18, 2021

Port Alberni community rises together to become official FHBC society

Port Alberni Junior’s Program. Photo Credit: Hannah Ramsey

by Ali Baggott and FHBC Staff

For most when they talk about Vancouver Island hockey it’s often presumed to be about Victoria or Cowichan but one hockey Family is changing that. Long-time field hockey community members Andi Shannon and Giles Wheatley have, together, created their own pocket of junior hockey in Port Alberni, a less than 3-hour drive up island from Victoria.

The hockey couple are no strangers to field hockey in BC having both coached and played at a high level both on the island and in Vancouver. They relocated to Port Alberni, Shannon’s hometown, where they are raising their four children and, like the hockey builders they have always been, started a hockey community. That community took a big step recently becoming an official Field Hockey BC recognized society.

It would be an understatement to say that Andi and Giles are driving the resurrection of the sport in the Alberni Valley. “It’s not a league, but rather a number of age-based training groups”, Giles, whose twin brother Clive Wheatley is also actively involved in hockey in Victoria, explains.

Andi Shannon and Giles Wheatley. Photo Credit: Hannah Ramsey

The pair of been a consistent presence to bring the sport to life every year since 2015. Their program is open to boys and girls aged 4-13 years and takes mirrors most provincial spring leagues, running from April to June.

“We aim to develop skill and technique, but the main idea is to give the kids a good time. They work in small groups and the focus is fun, be active, and build skills.” adds Andi, a former stalwart defender for the UBC Thunderbirds.

“Our strength is our volunteers,” Andi credits. “There is no way that Giles and I could do this on our own. We have people showing up, year after year, to put hours in each season, and we have so much gratitude for them. Our coaches and parent volunteers are outstanding including Dana, Karli, Amy, Lenora, Jason, Kristi, and Dave. We couldn’t do it without them.”

As the number of participants continued to increase, it only made sense to create the appropriate structure. Then, in 2020, the Alberni Field Hockey Association was officially registered as a society with the province and Field Hockey BC.

Hockey families build foundation

Photo Credit: Hannah Ramsey

Most of the volunteer parents and coaches, including teachers from local schools, have a field hockey background from when they were young.

“There was a fair bit of field hockey in the Valley many years ago,” describes Giles. “I think they are all excited to be part of this rebirth too”.

There’s no doubt those volunteers have excellent mentors as both Giles and Andi were involved in Canadian national team programs as athletes and both coached provincially and, for Giles, at a national team level.

As Andi points out, “it is important for us to acknowledge the hockey that came before us, particularly my mom, Donna Shannon, my aunt, Cheryl Shannon, and the many other people who supported the junior programs and coached in the schools when I was a kid growing up.”

Through the 1980’s, there was a women’s league in the area with four teams competing regularly. “I spent many evenings on the side of a hockey pitch when I was young and played in the league when I was 13 through 17”, Andi remembers.

She also highlights the importance of names such as Jenny John, who dedicated her career to developing field hockey across British Columbia.

“Jenny was integral in supporting small programs throughout the province at that time. This centralized support allowed small programs to flourish and gave athletes from outside major centres an opportunity to play and compete.”

Andi grew up playing and coaching at school, being part of provincial and national squad, and even playing internationally, in the Netherlands and New Zealand. Giles had a similar career experience: played in Australia, England and Germany; coached the Junior Men’s National team and served on staff of the Senior Men and Women’s National programs at various opportunities.

Starting out in Port Alberni

Photo Credit: Hannah Ramsey

Andi and Giles moved to Port Alberni in 2007 to start their married life together.

“My life used to be dominated by field hockey for so many years; I put so much in but also got so much out,” Giles says. “Starting a family and being somewhat isolated from field hockey in Port Alberni resulted in an enforced break from all that.”

“Our lives revolved around field hockey for so long. To be away from that was hard. I especially missed playing with my club team in Vancouver, the Meralomas, and the high-performance coaching opportunities,” Andi adds.

As Andi remembers, “when we moved here, Giles still had some connection to the men’s national team and travelled – we had little kids and it was tough having him gone for a few weeks at a time – but hockey was so important to both of us that we didn’t want to give up any opportunities that came our way. For the first few years, I assistant coached a provincial team with Robin D’Abreo based in Vancouver that went on to represent Canada at the Pan Am Cup in Uruguay. We travelled with our 1-year-old, and there were practices where she was in a carrier while I coached. Eventually, we had to start to focus our time here in Port Alberni.”

They started to scratch that itch by bringing together their own children and some of their friends who were also interested in field hockey. With no more than 12 kids in their first year, they bought some sticks and balls, and put in the work.

As soccer season in Port Alberni ends in March, Andi and Giles scheduled their program to begin after that. “Our kids all play soccer and we both coach fairly extensively in that sport as well, so there is some cross-pollination,” Giles said.

Indeed, Saturday mornings in the spring proved to be “a lovely time to be out on a field” as Giles puts it, but the success also comes from the fact that the programs focused on being upbeat and friendly.

“Much of it is providing a fun program that is fairly inexpensive and doesn’t try to dominate anyone’s time too much”, he concludes.

Growing ambitions

Photo Credit: Hannah Ramsey

Andi and Giles are also striving to create competitive opportunities. Even though they have yet to leave Port Alberni to play against other clubs, particularly this past season due to the pandemic, the increasing interest from the local community keeps them motivated on expanding the program in size and scope.

“We were slated last year to compete in a few tournaments on the mainland and the BC U12 festival, but COVID restrictions curbed those activities”, says Andi. “My goal is to have a viable high school team as our kids get to that stage, to afford them some of the opportunities that hockey offered us.”

Since Port Alberni is located in the interior of Vancouver Island, any competition will involve travelling by one of the teams, and finding a viable way to arrange all that is the biggest challenge moving forward.

“It will take some willingness from bigger centres to find time to play us”, Andi points out. “We have already had offers to come to tournaments on the mainland, so we know that we will find a way!”

For Giles, in order to avoid constantly having to travel, the ideal is to take the most out of each time they go on the road.

“Both Andi and I spent immeasurable time travelling in order to participate in field hockey, so we go into this with our eyes open. We won’t travel weekly, but we’ll likely target events where we can get multiple games in.”

The community beyond the Island

Photo Credit: Hannah Ramsey

When talking about field hockey in Canada and particularly in BC, the word community somehow always comes up. Andi’s connections to her UBC, Meralomas and Vancouver days certainly have been critical to her ability to jumpstart hockey in Port Alberni. Andi credits former national team and UBC teammate Stephanie Nesbitt (née Hume) who shared practice plans from her work with the Hawks junior program.

“It would have taken me hours of time to also put together practice plans for our coaches and Stephanie’s generosity is an example of how we can all help each other grow the sport across the province,” Andi notes.

It certainly is up to the whole BC community to support each other and keep the sport growing in all corners of the province. Andi and Giles are certainly leading that charge.

COVID-19 Response: PHO Order Interpretation (from June 14th PHO Announcement and June 15th PHO Order Revision) – Communique #12

Download the PDF version of this communique here.


Dear Field Hockey BC Members,

Following Return to Responsible Play meetings with viaSport BC this afternoon, I am writing to provide a community update following the latest Provincial Government announcement and PHO order revision, as well as a follow-up on the previous FHBC Communique #11 sent out on May 31st, 2021.

As promised, FHBC will be providing updates as new information is received regarding the interpretation of Provincial Health Office (PHO) order announcements and expectations for the Organized Sport Sector. As anticipated, there are again areas of this latest announcement regarding PHO order interpretation and ‘Restart 2.0’ that require further clarification, however the following is sent as both a reminder and in the case of points 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 11 an important update:

  1. Both Adult members and Youth members may return to Outdoor field hockey activity.
  2. Activity is NO LONGER restricted to a ‘Home Club’ and the associated local outdoor facility(s). Organized Sport travel within BC is now permissible having been re-designated and included under recreational travel within the latest PHO order revision. The ‘Home Club’ restriction is therefore removed.
  3. See point 2 above – Travel is NO LONGER restricted to a ‘Home Club’ and the associated local outdoor facility(s) – noting adherence to the current PHO Regional Travel Restriction still applies.
  4. Physical Distancing is no longer required for outdoor field hockey activity.
    • This is restricted to the designated field of play AND field infrastructure (team bench areas). Off-field physical distancing of 2m and associated COVID-19 safety plans must still be adhered to.
  5. Adult group size on any single outdoor field facility should be restricted to within the ‘Rule of 50’. This group size limit includes Coaches, Officials, Managers, Trainers, and other Supporting Personnel.
  6. BOTH Adult and Youth group size on any single outdoor field facility should now be restricted to within the ‘Rule of 50’. The previous discretionary maximum group size for Youth has now been revised to bring alignment between Adult and Youth activity. This group size limit includes Coaches, Officials, Managers, Trainers, and other Supporting Personnel.
    • Subject to Municipal and/or Operator/Owner rules and regulations, LSO’s may now decide what is reasonable in the numbers of Youth members able to access a single outdoor field of play facility. Municipal or Operator rules and regulations must be adhered to which may require adherence to specific group size limit set by the Municipality or facility Operator.
  7. There is no need or requirement to form participant cohorts.
  8. With no requirement for cohort modelling, members within a ‘Home Club’ may interact within a training and/or game play environment.
  9. COVID Safety Plans must still be in place and adhered to.
  10. Attestation Form completion ahead of participant activity is still required.
  11. Outdoor Spectators (up to a maximum of 50) are now permitted. Municipal or Operator rules and regulations must be adhered to which may require adherence to a specific spectator size limit set by the Municipality or facility Operator.
  12. The requirement for a new PSO Responsible Return to Play Framework aligning to ‘Restart 2.0’ still requires further viaSport BC and Provincial Government guidance.

Further FHBC Return to Responsible Play communiques to the membership will follow as FHBC receives greater clarity and interpretation over the days and weeks to follow. In the meantime, FHBC very much appreciates our memberships continued patience as we progressively move towards Step Three of the Provincial Government Restart 2.0 plan.

For further detail regarding Field Hockey’s COVID-19 response and to access information on the Provincial Government Restart 2.0 plan, as well as Responsible Return to Play Framework documentation, please refer to the Field Hockey BC website at: https://fieldhockeybc.com/covid-19-response/. Further reference material can be found on the viaSport BC website at https://www.viasport.ca/return-sport.

Yours in sport,

Mark Saunders
Executive Director
Field Hockey BC
June 15, 2021

Message from the Desk of the Field Hockey BC Vice-President

June 11, 2021

Dear Field Hockey BC Members,

I write on behalf of the Field Hockey BC Board of Directors to notify the Field Hockey BC Membership of an important change to the office of President to the Field Hockey BC Board of Directors. In my capacity as Field Hockey BC Vice-President and as per Field Hockey BC bylaws, I received on the afternoon of June 10, 2021 the written resignation of Andrew Dewberry as Field Hockey BC President. The Field Hockey BC Board of Directors has since convened via electronic means and formally accepted Andrew Dewberry’s resignation.

In the capacity of serving Vice-President of the Society and in accordance again with Society bylaws, I have informed the Field Hockey BC Board of Directors that I will fill the position of Society President for the remaining months of the current term (to February 2022). The Field Hockey BC Board of Directors are in the process of considering what interim steps will be taken for the currently vacant office of Society Vice-President.

I would like to thank Andrew for volunteering his time, energy, and commitment to the Society during his term as Society President and for his continued support for and drive towards the best possible environment for field hockey participation across BC. We wish Andrew the very best as he steps down from this role.

Yours in sport,
Denise McGeachy
Field Hockey BC Vice-President

Job Opportunity – FHA Program Coordinator and Head Coach

by Field Hockey Alberta

This position is a combined project between Field Hockey Alberta and the University of Calgary Dinos. The Program Coordinator and Head Coach works with both organizations in a combined full-time position focused on field hockey in Alberta.

The goal is to refine the high-performance program and develop youth field hockey within the province. The chosen candidate will help lead and develop field hockey across the province. The successful candidate will work with the technical director to coordinate the centres of excellence.

Field Hockey Alberta has the ambition to become one of the primary sports within the province and a serious contributor on the National Field Hockey stage. FHA is looking for a motivated and certified applicant with experience in sport program development and high-level competition experience. Experience with coaching indoor Field Hockey is a requirement.

Start Date: Fall 2021
Salary: $45,000 (starting negotiation)

To read the full job description and applications info, please click here.

Provincial Performance Talent Identification – Coach and Evaluator Application

FHBC is now accepting applications for the role of Athlete Evaluation Committee Member for the Provincial Performance Talent Identification Program taking place this summer.

If you are interested in applying to be an Athlete Evaluator, please access the following link:
FHBC 2021 Athlete Evaluation Committee Application

FHBC is also accepting applications for the roles of Head and Assistant Coach positions for the Provincial Performance Talent Identification Program.

If you are interested in applying to be a Head or Assistant Coach, please complete the following form:
FHBC 2021 Talent ID Camp Coach Application

Application deadline is Monday, June 21st.