New ED Amanda Hungle learning Hockey Regina’s intricacies

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“It’s like running a small business.”

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Before becoming Hockey Regina’s new executive director, Amanda Hungle had been a player, coach and on-ice official whose experiences and college degrees made her well-suited for the challenges of overseeing 2,361 players and their coaches on 154 teams of various skill levels in six male and female age divisions.

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That didn’t mean she was completely prepared for the craziness of preseason evaluations.

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“It was certainly an intense time of the season,” said Hungle, smiling at the memory, during a recent conversation inside Hockey Regina’s offices. “It’s definitely the operationally heaviest time of the season for us. Being my first time through and most of the board’s first time through evaluations, there was a lot of learning, a lot of diving right into operations.

“It was good to understand the current process, how does it work and what are we hearing from members.”

The experience led Hockey Regina to form a new committee to examine the process. It will determine if there’s a better method than deploying contracted evaluators through 550 hours of ice time during a five-week period to grade every player’s individual skills. And it happened while Hockey Regina was interviewing and assigning coaches for the various levels from AA to C. Hockey Regina’s elite U18 AAA teams — the Pat Canadians boys squad and the Rebels, who are the reigning Canadian girls champions — had their coaches in place following last season.

Hungle was hired by the 11-member volunteer board in June, signed to a multi-year contract, and started working in July as one of Hockey Regina’s six fulltime employees. She replaced Blair Watson, who retired after spending 18 years as the executive director.

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“The search committee was tasked with finding someone with hockey credibility, strong business acumen and excellent communication skills as we look to a changing future for Hockey Regina,” Garnett Volk, one of the organization’s directors, said in a press release announcing her hiring.

“Amanda brings experience and passion for all areas and I’m excited to support her leadership as she moves into her new role.”

Hungle grew up in Regina, a competitive golfer attending Miller High School while playing in the Queen City Minor Hockey League, which was Hockey Regina’s precursor.

She attended Wayne State University in Detroit and, while earning Academic All-America honours, played four years on a hockey scholarship before finishing her education at the University of Regina. Hungle has a business administration degree, a masters in administration leadership and a masters certificate in organizational leadership.

Hungle played football for the Regina Riot, officiated numerous levels of hockey and worked for the City of Regina before applying for the ED job, hoping to help fortify a sport she has enjoyed her entire life. Her husband is a former goalie and her two young daughters are getting involved in hockey, one of whom she helped coach last season.

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“I never thought in my career that I would be able to work in hockey,” said Hungle, the first woman to be the organization’s executive director.

“As a child, you become quite competitive in this sport and then you think, at some point, particularly in the female stream in the past, ‘I’m gonna have to go and get a job.’ So to come back has been a full circle.”

Hungle credits the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the U.S./Canada Rivalry Series with helping make the sport more appealing to females. Although Hockey Regina’s total registration numbers have been basically unchanged for the past 3-4 years, Hungle noted that 434 girls are playing on teams in U7, U9, U11, U13, U15 and U18 leagues, with an all-time high of 490 registered when the co-ed players are counted.

Hockey Regina is like most volunteer organizations, its policies are set by the members while the employees handle the details. Hungle’s duties include overseeing day-to-day operations of a $3-million operation, handling complaints and making sure ice times, officials, coaches and players are all in synch.

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“It’s like running a small business,” she said.

Working under a mission statement of “Building community through hockey,” Hungle said the board has instructed her to focus on three strategic plans — communications and marketing; coaching selection, development and mentorship; and governance.

“In sport the highs are high and sometimes the lows can be real lows,” said Hungle. “But that’s kind of what it’s all about.

“We serve the membership. We have a pretty big membership and it’s a significant investment in terms of hockey, with significant reward on the outside. Our role is to facilitate that.”

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