From the Desk of Cochrane Minor Hockey
Special to the Eagle
Stephanie Rapp – one of the OG creators of the Fluffy Purple Monsters – is the association’s volunteer of the month. The busy mother of two, whose job has her spending much of her time traveling, is all hockey when she hangs her hat at home.
Team manager for her daughter’s first year and son’s second-year Atom teams, Rapp is celebrating her fifth year as team manager.
For anyone who does not know – the Fluffy Purple Monsters was the inaugural initiation all girls team in CMHA. Fast forward a few years, and the name still sticks and the aptly named colourful beasts live on year after year.
“It’s kind of what I do for work – I manage a team,” laughed Rapp, highlighting that a good manager should delegate tasks and involve as many people as they can. “Yes, you’re managing, but you have your network of help … don’t be shy and ask for help.”
This sentiment continues to be driven home by the celebrated volunteers of CMHA: it takes a village.
Rapp, who would love to facilitate a manager mentorship program through the association, said the secret is to include everyone and build on the family element.
Parent parties, bottle drives, early-season exhibition games and early tournaments are some of Rapp’s tricks to team cohesion.
With no immediate family in town, Rapp and her family have learned firsthand the value in building community through sport.
“I know when I need help I can call my hockey family … there’s a real sense of community.”
“Stephanie is an amazing manager. When you are a coach on a team that Stephanie is running, you can just focus on coaching and everything else gets done,” said Lorne Bremner of his colleague. Bremner is the female director for CMHA.
Perspective and patience are top of list for Rapp when it comes to dealing with parents who push their kids or volunteers too hard.
“I always say this: in ten years from now are they going to remember how many individual points they had? What they’re going to remember is the sick play someone made scoring a goal off someone’s helmet or the waterslides at the hotel,” said Rapp, who played basketball through her first year of college.
“At the end of the day we are trying to develop our children to grow up to be leaders, to be better people and to be respectful of others.”
Do you have a minor hockey volunteer worthy of recognition? Send us a line at [email protected].
