Tara Jeffrey/The Independent

A backyard rink in Brigden and a pair of hockey skates that fit just right marked the beginning of Kassie Roache’s lifelong connection to the game.

“My parents came home with a pair of skates for me and my twin sister when we were two or three,” she recalls. “My feet were too wide for the figure skates, so I got the hockey skates.”

Now 30, Roache reflects on how her hockey journey helped prepare her for her most exciting role yet — serving as an assistant coach for the Western University Women’s hockey team.

She began as a goalie in the Mooretown Minor Hockey system under head coach Mark McCabe, often one of the only girls on the team. “I loved it,” says Roache. “I loved hitting — that’s all I did. I body checked everyone.”

Eventually, she traded goalie pads for a forward’s stick. In U15, she was invited to try out for the Sarnia Jr. Lady Sting girls’ ‘A’ team — a move she initially resisted.

“I didn’t want to play girls hockey because I didn’t think they were good,” she says, with a laugh. “And then when I got there, I was like, ‘Ohhh… these girls can play.’

“It was fun, and we were good — nobody was leaving to other centres,” she adds, referring to the open border system in girls’ hockey. “If you think about the talent in this area, if nobody leaves, you can build a pretty solid team.”

The team went on to capture the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHA) provincial championship, and the success continued into Sarnia’s Midget (U18) AA program, where several players went on to university careers.

Watching her teammates take that step made Roache realize it might be possible for her, too.

“We didn’t really grow up thinking there was like a league for us,” she said. “We just kind of tried hard because we loved it.

“We were aiming for something, but we didn’t really know what.”

In Roache’s final year of U18, an invitation to skate with the University of Toronto’s Varsity Blues women’s hockey program turned into a roster spot under head coach and three-time Olympic medalist Vicky Sunohara.

Roache spent five seasons with the Blues, double-majoring in criminology and sociology, studying abroad in Italy, and emerging as one of the OUA’s top scorers. In her final year, she helped lead Toronto to the 2019 U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship.

After university, she spent two seasons with the ECDC Memmingen Indians in Germany’s DFEL, followed by two more with MAC Budapest in the EWHL. A knee injury eventually ended her European career.

At 28, Roache returned home to Corunna, unsure what might come next.

“I just started putting on hockey camps,” she says. “I was going to do one summer, and then it just kind of took off.”

Word spread quickly. Growing numbers of local players — from beginners to elite-level skater signed up, prompting the launch of her own brand, Kassie Roache Hockey.

“I never really had a female role model when I was playing — someone who was always around the rink,” says Roache. “So it’s nice that they get that now.”

It didn’t take long for her to step behind the bench in Mooretown. Last season, she joined the coaching staff for both the boys’ U15 and girls’ U13 teams. This year, she’s coaching the U15 ‘A’ girls alongside McCabe, her longtime mentor.

“When I came home, he was the person who called me to get into coaching,” Roache says. “So it’s sort of come full circle.”

She was settling into life back home — balancing her day job, running her hockey development program and coaching when a call last fall changed everything.

Former PWHL forward Brittany Howard invited Roache to join her bench staff with the Western Mustangs women’s hockey team.

“I was excited,” she says. “I knew it was going to be really tough to balance with work, but I would’ve regretted it every day if I said no.”

The past few months have been a whirlwind for Roache, who says she’s learning constantly.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” she says of the Western job. “It’s much different than the minor hockey system; you’re coaching girls who might only have a year or two of hockey left. So it’s really rewarding to have that impact, because university was so crucial in my life, in both my personal and player development.”

She isn’t sure what comes next — and that’s the best part.

“I wasn’t looking to get into coaching in the OUA, but I’m glad I was led to it. Living in the moment, attacking opportunities without actively searching for them — if you’re always chasing the next thing, you can’t really enjoy it.

“No matter what’s going on in your life, when you show up to the rink, nothing else matters,” she adds. “And it’s been like that for me since I was a kid. Until that stops happening, I’ll keep going to the rink.”