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       Piper Hays believes she could have grown deeper interests in hockey or reached the professional level if she’d had more female coaches.

       Alia Youssef/The Globe and Mail

       When six-year-old Piper Hays started to learn hockey in 2009, it was the first and only year that she had a female coach.

       The little beginner dreamed of becoming a high-level player, but she struggled to find women role models who were readily available.

       Now 17, Ms. Hays laments what might have been, believing she could have grown deeper interests in the sport or reached the professional level if she’d had more female coaches. Determined to stop other girls from meeting the same fate, she started coaching minor players when she was 13.

       Many young female players and mothers have stepped into the coaching field in recent years, a territory that’s traditionally been dominated by fathers in minor hockey. In B.C.’s Lower Mainland, female hockey associations are pushing for more women behind the bench, increased female representation at clubs, and better access to role models for younger girls. They aim to bring a different perspective to coaching.

       “We have a ton of dad coaches that we really appreciate all their efforts. But I do think there’s something special about having female role models woven all the way through this as well, so that there is a balance,” said Jeff Smith, vice-president of the Vancouver Female Ice Hockey Association (VFIHA).

       The association, which has approximately 340 players aged five to 20, began its mission of hiring more female coaches in 2014. That year, the club had eight; by 2020 the number had risen to 35. Meanwhile the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association (PCAHA) – which does not track the exact number of coaches on a year-to-year basis – has seen its number of women coaches double during the past decade, according to Drew MacDonald, the organization’s managing director of female hockey.

       Those increases were hard-earned.

       VFIHA’s president, James Nedila, compared finding high-level female coaches in the mid-2000s to hunting for unicorns. After months of searching, he wasn’t having any luck.

       “There really weren’t that many of them,” he said, stressing that was partly because female players were not given a lot of opportunity.

       So the club changed its tactics, he said: Instead of hiring high-level female coaches, it opened its doors to female players with or without coaching experiences, offering them opportunities to be certified, mentored and supported. Some of the women are paid; others volunteer their time.

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       It worked. “It’s gotten to the point where now people are seeking us out.”

       At PCAHA, 10 to 15 per cent of coaches are now women, Mr. MacDonald said. He wants that number to be at least one third.

       Like Ms. Hays, many female coaches on minor teams these days are former players who have returned to their clubs to teach.

       Both Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Nedila believe it’s beneficial to have young, third-party coaches who don’t have children in the game.

       “We need women and girls to know that, hey, this is an option,” Mr. MacDonald said. “And having positive role models, positive representation, I think, is critical.”

       The move benefits girls both on and off the ice. Ms. Hays recalled she often found it hard to confide in her male coaches, even though they were all great in their roles. “There’s always that sort of distance.”

       The growing numbers of women coaches goes hand in hand with the increasing popularity of female hockey, Mr. MacDonald said.

       “Over the last 20 to 30 years, we’ve had more women that have played hockey, therefore they’ve had experience to come in and start taking on coaching roles. It’s definitely picking up pace in the last several years.”

       According to Mr. Smith, one product of all these changes is that the story of girls playing the sport just for fun no longer stands. Five years ago, his association had one rep team, for under 18s. Now U13 and U15 rep teams have also formed. Last year, more than 70 per cent of U15 and U18 female players expressed interest in trying out, he said.

       “And that was staggering. That’s a difference.”

       As for Ms. Hays, after four years of teaching on the ice in B.C., she is off to the University of Toronto in the fall. She wants to bring her skills and passion to the other side of the country.

       “I would like to keep coaching for as long as I can.”

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