“We don’t just work with the best of the best kids. We work with all kids because they all have different goals and a different goal of what their next level is.”
Businesses and non-profit organizations regularly open and move in Saskatoon. Today the StarPhoenix talks to Alyssa Wiebe, who together with Willow Slobodzian, started Phenom Female Hockey Advising last year. The pair, both with plenty of hockey playing and coaching experience, help young girls between Grades 8 and 12 to navigate their next hockey step forward.
Wiebe competed in three national hockey championships for U18 Team Saskatchewan and played on the U18 national summer team. She also starred from 2008 to 2012 with the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux in NCAA Division-1, becoming the first in her program to reach 100 career points. Slobodzian competed for the U18 Canadian national team and won two Ivy League championships for the Cornell University Big Red, also in Division-1, from 2017 to 2021.
Q: Why did you start Phenom Female Hockey Advising?
A: Willow and I spent two years coaching the U15 AA Saskatoon Comet girls’ hockey team and loved it and enjoyed it. But we were constantly getting asked questions about the next level and university and playing AAA and what that looks like. All these young female girls are seeing the potential as the female game grows of where they could end up and what their goals could be. We knew there are lots of male advising companies out there but there’s very few of the female hockey advising, especially in the western part of Canada. We decided let’s offer this service to young female hockey players and their families and parents because not all of them know what this process looks like and how to navigate the hockey world, especially if they don’t have that background or knowledge.
Q: What makes you stand out from other hockey advising services?
A: If I were to Google female hockey advising in Canada, we’re the first one that pops up. There are a couple male programs that will have a female advisor on board, but we’re strictly female-ran and only work with females.
Q: What services do you provide?
A: Advising is the big one. We provide advice about different career development paths that are available. We offer advising, academic support and mentorship. We hammer home being a student-athlete with the student coming first. We inform girls and help make the best decisions on their development path and we’ll do highlight videos.
Everyone’s next level looks different. Some of our athletes are A players and they’re looking to get to AA. Some are AA looking to get to AAA. And some are AAA looking to get to collegiate. We don’t just work with the best of the best kids. We work with all kids because they all have different goals and a different goal of what their next level is. We identify their strengths and weaknesses. We do goal setting and then through mentorship we understand that there’s obstacles they’re going to go through. We help kids identify options and opportunities for themselves and their families that they didn’t know existed.
Q: What age groups do you work with?
A: We start working with girls in Grade 8. That’s the youngest we’ll take, so they’re typically about 13 or 14-years-old at the youngest. Anyone under 13, it’s just too young. Let her enjoy hockey still because, not that she won’t enjoy it later, but it gets a lot more intense. The hockey political world is insane. The kids are pretty sheltered from it at a young age. But as they get older they start to see it and it becomes more prevalent in their eyes.
Q: Do you act as a placement service or agents?
A: No. One of the things I want to be clear about is that we are not a placement service. We are not agents. An agent would be marketing them and promoting them and calling coaches about kids. But per NCAA rules they cannot have agents. It would affect their eligibility. But they can hire an advisor. So we offer advice and guidance and mentorship. There is zero agent work. When we create a highlight video for them, we aren’t sending that out. We are helping them on the back end to tell who they should be sending this to. There’s no placement guarantee. We’re not agents.
Q: Do you offer on-ice instruction or summer prep skates?
A: Yes. New this year we’re doing summer prep skates. A lot of feedback we got after we started Phenom was that girls really miss having us on the ice. We decided to get on the ice with these kids. We know we have valuable information and stuff to share for the off-ice stuff but we also have valuable skill sets and opportunities to help the girls grow on the ice as well, and prepare them. Willow works with defence and I work with forwards.
Q: How many girls do you offer services to?
A: Last year for advising, we worked with 19 girls. We said we’d take 15 but we had a wait list, so we went with 19. You could comfortably say we work with 15 girls per season. And then we’re probably close to 60 kids registered for our on-ice skates.
Q Why do you call yourselves Phenom?
A: We were debating what to call ourselves. A phenom, is a person who is outstandingly talented or admired and especially an up-and-comer. We feel that all the athletes that we work with are up-and-comers. The talent is there, but they’re still growing and haven’t quite reached their peak potential. So Phenom just seemed like a natural fit to work with these girls.
Q: How does it feel to be able to help someone optimize their hockey path?
A: It’s exciting. It’s rewarding to see the girls light up when they sign the contract to the team that they’re going to be playing with for the next season and the pride that goes with that for them. It’s also rewarding when we help them work through challenging times through the season. Those arise, whether it’s conflicts with a teammate or a coach or they’re struggling with their mental toughness. We meet them monthly. We do a phone call with them to discuss things going on and how they can counter problems and how they can work through it. We go watch them play. We’ll review video with them.
We didn’t have this type of service when I played or when Willow played. So to be able to offer this to young girls and girls who want to get to their next level and continue to grow in hockey, it’s rewarding. I wish something like this existed in my day.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Phenom Female Hockey Advising
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