After years of working behind the benches at rinks around Alberta’s capital region, St. Albert native Douglas Stuart is settling into a coaching position with the Malmo Redhawks of Swedish women’s hockey league.
Stuart holds an assistant position with the Redhawks, located in the Scandinavian country’s third-largest city. The Redhawks compete in the DamEttan Division I league, the second-highest tier of women’s professional hockey in Sweden.
Stuart made the move in February to be closer to his girlfriend, a student completing her PhD at a Swedish university.
Coaching in Sweden lets Stuart draw from diverse experiences he gained living in St. Albert. As a youth, he played for teams in the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association. After aging out of minor hockey, Stuart taught skating fundamentals with the City of St. Albert, Quantum Speed Skating, and Crestwood Skating, before eventually cutting his teeth as a coach with the same organization that introduced him to the game years earlier.
“I’ve always liked coaching, especially how it requires you to look at the game tactically from the bench and from a computer screen,” Stuart told The Gazette in a phone interview. “I find it really exciting to study teams and figure out how they play and what makes them tick.”
In the months prior to going overseas, Stuart coached minor hockey in St. Albert, a role his father Brian also held.
“I am very grateful for everything I learned while working for Quantum and Crestwood — it provided me with a really solid foundation for getting into coaching in the context of hockey,” Stuart said. “And my father coached hockey in St. Albert, so that’s sort of how I got into it. I never had the skill to [play] pro, but I felt like I could bring my knowledge to another aspect of the game.”
Growing women’s athletics
As is the case in Canada, hockey is one of the most popular sports for women, with many professional, amateur, and recreational leagues across the nation. Yet, as is also true in Canada, coaches, athletes and fans face chronic challenges to growing the game and enjoying the level of financial backing received by their male counterparts — a disparity Stuart hopes to help alleviate as he progresses in his career.
“At this point, the international opportunities aren’t the same for men and women in terms of money and job security,” Stuart said. “Women’s hockey doesn’t receive the funding and attention it should.
“I love Malmo so far, and I want to continue coaching in Sweden for the foreseeable future, but Canada is home. Depending on how things go in the future, I think it would be really cool to help promote the idea of a professional or high-level team to St. Albert or Edmonton. Hockey is in the community’s DNA, and with the proper funding and advertising, I don’t see why it couldn’t take off.”
Stuart and the Redhawks are currently on a five-game winning streak and will suit up against a strong squad in Frolunda HC this Friday, the result of which will be posted online.
