Week 10 - Part 2

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:11] Speaker B: Welcome back to the second half. [00:00:12] Speaker C: Of this week's material. [00:00:14] Speaker D: This is another guest lecturer this week and someone I'm extremely excited to get. [00:00:17] Speaker B: To share with you. [00:00:18] Speaker D: Someone who's just recently finished their journey at Brock University and has begun their journey in the hockey industry at the non profit youth level here in the, in the hockey industry specifically. And that is at the Forest Hill, Forest Hill Hockey Association. We're going to be speaking to their executive director, Bodhi Deakin, a recent Brock grad. Someone that can help share how he got involved, how we sort of set off into this sort of sports industry in this first few years post graduation. And there's a lot of, I think really interesting insights that Bodhi's gonna be able to share with you about how he got involved and what his day to day is like and how you too can get involved at a local association near you in the Canadian sport industry. So with no further ado, here's Bodhi. [00:01:06] Speaker B: We are so fortunate to be joined today by Bodhi Deakin, the executive director of the Forest Hill Hockey Association. Bode, thank you so much for joining us. [00:01:14] Speaker C: Thank you for having me. [00:01:15] Speaker B: This is great. [00:01:16] Speaker C: Been looking forward to this. [00:01:17] Speaker B: Fantastic. Bodie, tell us about your hockey journey. When did it start? When did you first become involved in hockey? [00:01:24] Speaker C: Well, I mean I could date it all the way back to the, My dad making me watch Matt Sundin's return to Toronto as a Canuck would be the first introduction that I had. And then sort of just from there, you know, I started, if anyone watching us from Toronto, Bill Bolton, those were a lot of, a lot of kids start there and made my way up. I never really played too high of a level and just select. I don't, I wouldn't have gone higher. I wasn't, I was too tall, wasn't very fast, so. But I played hockey my whole life. Played intramurals and at Brock and played lug when I was there as well and continue to play now. I'm in, you know, some men's leagues with the friends. It's great. It's one of those sports you can just kind of always play. It's good camaraderie and will always be in my heart. Hockey. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Fantastic. When did you start of where did you first start to be to be interested in maybe getting involved in the. [00:02:19] Speaker D: Administration side of hockey? [00:02:23] Speaker C: I mean right around the time that I heard there's sort of an age around kind of grade 10, grade 11, where you start kind of pondering what happens after high school where you go for University and I was told by one of my older cousin's friends that he had went to Brock and the sports management program and that sort of got my wheels turning there. Just I, you know, looked into it then. Grade 11 and 12, I was, I was really, really pushing. That was really where I wanted to end up. You know, as, as when it comes to, you know, math and science and they're all, all those subjects, they're all cool. But in sports, it's just. That's how I've always been. It's the knowledge I retain the most. And yeah, it's, it was always sort of my, my end goal to end up at Barack. And I just, I couldn't have thought of a, a better topic to study in university. And I've been extremely grateful since, since graduating 2024 that I got four great years in a, in a great program. [00:03:21] Speaker B: Now take us through that journey. You graduated in 2024. How does the journey with, with Forest Hill begin? [00:03:27] Speaker C: Yeah, so I, in between third and fourth year I was sort of, you know, scrambling to find a job and I sort of had this. Epiphany is kind of a bad word. But you know, I sort of thought that I wanted to do something to boost my resume a little bit. Just make it look like you have sort of improve how I came across on paper. And I took an internship with another NPO and it was a, It's a Toronto based NPO that had a lot of. It was a charitable, charitable organization, but they had a sports department that ran a number of adult leagues. When I was there, it was during the summer, so it was the. Primarily they had a softball league that I was working with and finished that job at the end of the summer. Fourth year started and around the February mark, I think I got a call from my boss from that, from that internship who told me that he had heard of an opportunity with Forest Hill. They wanted to start a new position, an executive director's position primarily just to sort of handle all of the things that the volunteers didn't have time to do. The board of directors and basically everyone involved in Forest Hill other than me, they're all volunteers, all just members of the community, hockey parents, current and past, who just care a lot and want to help in any way they can. But there was a lot of mandates and a lot of new policies sort of starting to funnel down from Hockey Canada, the Ontario Hockey Federation and then more municipal ones like the gthl, the Greater Toronto Hockey League. So yeah, their idea was to bring on someone full time to navigate the organization through some of these policies and help in the areas that take a lot of effort. And I was recommended for that position through my employer from the summer before, and Domino's kind of just fell from there. I met with the board, met with the president, and I got started right at the start of May, right after graduating. Had a beautiful week off between school and getting started with a job. But I've been super, super grateful ever since, and it's been fantastic so far. [00:05:50] Speaker B: Wow, that is quite a transition right from graduation right into not just a role in hockey, but an executive director role. Now, that is. That's incredibly significant. And we were talking right before we started recording. I would venture that you are the youngest executive director of a hockey association, especially a hockey association of this size, at least in the province of Ontario, and perhaps one of the youngest in the entire country. Take us through that first month of this role. What was that like? What did you learn in a very, very short fashion? [00:06:19] Speaker C: Well, thank you, by the way. I definitely. Quite the compliment that I am very curious to look up after this. But, yeah, the way the, the president of the association, he warned me, he said, we're just going to throw you in the deep end and, you know, learn as you go. And that was very much what it was. There's still, there's. There's still things that, like, every once in a while something will come across my desk and, like, you know, have to take a step back and really ask around, like, what do I do? And that in that first month, luckily, the time when, around the time that I started, the season had finished, they were just in the process of tryouts and team fittings, and they sort of kept me out of that process because it was. It's a, it's more complicated than it seems. And I learned that myself this, this past May. But yeah, it was just sort of a lot of, just kind of integrating into the systems a lot of different. Of the administrative side, the Hockey Canada for all, all clubs, anywhere they use the, the hcr. It's called the Hockey Canada Registry. And it's a big platform where rosters get approved. It's, it's. It's a, it's a big system. And so that was, that was sort of the first one that I had to learn. And it, the roster creation for even the next year starts as early as May, just with kind of how big of a task it can be. There's, you know, a lot of stuff that goes into it of. There's the Ontario Hockey Federation Had a new screening policy the year I started. So it was getting coaches sort of familiar with that and navigating, you know, getting people approved status for what was really a lot of work for coaches to do. And the main complaint that I heard most often was, you know, they're volunteers. They don't want to be doing all this stuff. And fair enough, there was. There was definitely a lot. [00:08:10] Speaker B: So it was. [00:08:11] Speaker C: It was kind of just learning how to manage that many people was never something I was used to. Being the intern, I was sort of the second behind the person who did it all. [00:08:20] Speaker B: Of course, that transition from being the person, that's everything you do is sort of a value add, and you're kind of pat on the back every single time you do something to the person who's looked to as a leader. I mean, tell us about what kind of skills do you use on sort of a day by day, week by week basis in your role there. What kinds of things do you take from your time, if anything, from your time at university? [00:08:43] Speaker C: From university, Yeah. I think the one that I can definitely say I find the most just parallels with is the same way due dates on papers and projects can sort of stack while you're a student. The same thing happens, you know, in your working life. Being able to sort of stay composed and prioritize tasks while deadlines are stacking up was one thing I really had to get sort of better at quick, just because in, you know, the quantity that I saw in university, it sort of ramped up a little bit. Especially it's starting in the off season, too. There's a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes in the off season, and it's mostly administrative. Um, so that was definitely one skill that I had to sort of tighten up on pretty quick. Um, and as the year progressed, it sort of did, you know, they. I'm still. Still working on stuff. There's still stuff that comes up all the time that I'm, you know, I'm. [00:09:43] Speaker B: A work in progress. Cody, you could work this job for 10 more years and you'd still be new in the field. I mean, this is an enormous learning experience for you. I'm just so curious at this time in your life where you've moved out of university, you're learning how the hockey industry operates, certainly from the. The way in which hockey is delivered to the people that actually experience it at the ground level. What is. Give us a sense of the. The. The scale of the task of organizing a hockey association like yours. How. [00:10:07] Speaker D: How large of a process. [00:10:08] Speaker B: Is it maybe take how a year operates? [00:10:11] Speaker C: Yeah, well, yeah, I will start by saying it is quite the process. And I have just so much respect for the board of directors. No one has changed since I've been. Since I've been there. They work so hard and they're all, as I said, they're all volunteers. It is a lot of work. A lot of stuff happens behind the scenes. The one thing that was really sort of funny for me to see it first was just because I grew up playing hockey and I was just completely unaware of actually how much work people were doing behind the scenes just for me to play. So to be a part of that was pretty cool. But in terms of a timeline, the. So right now we're still in the off season. It's the 17th. So we got our house league starts on the. In start of October, and that's sort of when the competitive side starts as well. [00:10:58] Speaker B: The. [00:10:59] Speaker C: It kind of. It comes in stages. So the end of the start of the off season is, you know, navigating tryouts, team fittings, simple stuff. Then there's ice contracts. I didn't realize how. How much of a process that was trying to coordinate with the city to get practice ice for all 31 of our competitive teams and sort of just how that all works. I've been. Now that I've done the full year, I can. I. I was only sort of like fly on the wall for the first time. All this stuff happens. So now I'm kind of at the point where I'm doing these things. Yeah. So off season is all prep. We're just, we're trying to finalize everyone's roster, get everyone approved by Hockey Canada, get all of our tournament permits for teams to go away and play. And. Yeah, and then once the, Once the year starts, it's. It turns to sort of just managing make sure everyone's. Every team is running smoothly. It's. It's all the. The one thing I've noticed is definitely all the little things are the ones that stack up and sort of the ones that even as I sit here trying to recount all the stuff that happens in here are the ones that sort of disappear because it's the stuff that, you know, like the picture days or house league finals and like all these sort of things that happen throughout the year, they just. It's sort of. You just take it one day at a time and like, you know, it's a new thing every day. And there's a bit of a vague answer to your question that's great. [00:12:27] Speaker B: I mean, again, it's been one year too. You've accomplished so much in one year there. I mean, one of the things that I always think about when I speak to people in your position, whether they have 40 years experience in the game or one, is oftentimes you enter this sort of line of work or if you're a volunteer and on a board or something like that, you might have ideas about challenges to the game of hockey, things you'd like to fix, things that you're like, oh, when I played or when I was studying at Brock, you know, I really thought I could be able to change, you know, X, Y or Z. Something like Ice Time is a great example of this, as you just sort of alluded to the contract dimension to it. Have you found any sort of a deeper appreciation for how difficult it is to make change inside the game, given how enormously large some of the machinery is inside of this world and how difficult it can be sometimes to. To make change? [00:13:16] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah. So like I said, like, everything kind of happens one step at a time. [00:13:21] Speaker B: Right? [00:13:22] Speaker C: Like, I can, I can tell you right now that when I started, I, you know, my mind was flowing with like, you know, all these things that I wanted to do and all these things I wanted to bring to Forest Hill. And while I am happy that I've been able to get to, you know, I'd say a few of the things I want to do in the grand scheme of things. You know, there's other things that I want to, you know, leave before I, you know, before my time at Forest Hill is up and some things I want to add. But yeah, absolutely, it is. There's always just so much going on and so many areas that need attention and the, the process of all these. And it is, it is a tricky world to navigate and. But yeah, no, I definitely have a. An appreciation for it now and, you know, we'll continue to work at it while I try to accomplish what I can in my time here. [00:14:12] Speaker B: Yeah, and it's. Again, you're filled at most turns. I'm sure you've, you've. You've run into lots of people that they're trying their very best and they're extremely good at what they've done. And they've done it for years and years and years. And there are some. I'm sure you're probably like, I wish I didn't have to deal with this person from this association or whatever. But the truth is the vast majority, overwhelming majority of the people in the Hockey industry and the hockey associations in Canada are just devoted, you know, experts and lovers of the game. And it's so hard from inside these organizations sometimes to and from outside these organizations to say, well, you know, hockey Canada's got to do this, or Forest Hill's got to change this policy, or, you know, oh, there's too many politics in the game. You hear that frequently, Frequently, Frequently. But then when you see it up close, you realize the amount of care and attention that goes into these things that is really, I think, not apparent to your own playing careers or even for many parents. They don't see it from your side. And you're getting a rare look under the hood here, and you see all the machinery there. And it makes me wonder about how valuable such an experience is. And I know that people who've served on boards get an appreciation for this over and over and over again. But do you think that getting experience like you're getting experience, maybe not even necessarily as an executive director, because that's an extremely large ask, but do you think students who are interested in working in hockey would be well served by observing an association like yourself or one close to where they live and getting a look at hockey from the inside? [00:15:37] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. No. 100%, sort of making it specific to my exact sort of role. The way I kind of operate in my job is our board of directors. Each person sort of specializes in something. We have people who, you know, they're. They look after GTHL aspects. Some select some house league, some cds, and then, you know, we get the other ones, like the chief of legal and treasurer and all, you know, all aspects of a board. And then my. I sort of kind of sit in the middle of everything, so I sort of have a hand in every pot. So I really sort of am. I'm grateful that I've had such a great opportunity to sort of see everything just because I have the opportunity to be a part of all of our processes. And. Yeah, and in doing that, I can just see, you know, how hard people work. And it's been just. Even in hockey, outside of hockey, it is really valuable to just see how all this stuff works. The amount of processes, of the things to navigate, policies to stay within, just to function as an organization is. It is. It is a lot of work, and it is truly impressive for, you know, how clubs do it. And actually on that subject, too, we. One of the things that I wanted to bring to Forest Hill, which I have started this for this year, and we actually have a Brock student doing it in the winter. But I've started in a pro, an internship program where students can do their placements with us and work with me and. And work with our organization. They're going to be directly sort of involved in primarily house league. And because that is our biggest. That's our biggest area we have in GTHL probably just under 200 kids. And in house league was, you know, 550. So it's. It's our biggest range of hockey. So that is. I'm hoping to give some students some. Some opportunities that I've gotten to just sort of see how everything works, which I'm excited about. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Brock thanks you for that. That's a great opportunity for them and. And I'm sure we're going to continue that relationship. Who knows, you know, maybe in the future we have even more finding its way over to you. And that's the replacement course, which is fantastic. What, now again? Maybe it's the next 20 years of your life, right? Maybe you're spending the next 20 years in this role. But what are your goals? Have they changed at all from when you arrived at Forest Hill? What's your ultimate goal now that you're a year into the industry, a year out of graduation? What's your goal and what's your sort of goal in the sports industry? And has that changed at all in the time working for your association? [00:18:13] Speaker C: You know, I mean, definitely. Loaded question. I. I don't know if I really have an end goal. You know, I. The one thing I have learned in this. In this job is sort of, you know, there are good days, there are bad days. The best thing that I can. That I can do and is to, you know, not look behind, not look forward, just kind of take each day at a time. To answer your question, in a broad sense, you know, I just want to make. Make a positive mark on the sports industry and, you know, help however I can. It's been. It's been sort of a pretty gratifying job that I've had so far because, you know, I. A lot of times I'll be at the rink and, you know, seeing these kids all happy to play hockey. [00:18:56] Speaker B: And I. [00:18:56] Speaker C: It wasn't that long ago that I was there my, you know, in their shoes, playing hockey at that, you know, whether I was 7 or 18. It's. It's been sort of cool to just kind of be at the other end of it now and, you know, help and leave the mark that I can. So I'd say ultimately, looking down the line, if there's something that I want to, you know, continue as my. In my career and is just to continue to try to do the best I can to, to help and leave a positive mark on, on young athletes, old athletes, whoever I'm better the sport. [00:19:32] Speaker B: Very magnanimous sentiment, Bodhi. Last question. What are some advices? What are some advice you would give to a Brock student in their upper year like the ones that are going to be listening to this in class. What would you, would you tell them here you weren't, wasn't that long ago you were in this very class and in a class like it. What advice would you give those students? [00:19:52] Speaker C: Well as I said before, I'll just repeat that of just sort of, you know, take it a day at a time. You know there's, there are days like myself, you know, even this month where I feel unstoppable and some days where I feel like I can do nothing right and it's, it's just a balance, you know, it's. So to keep a level head that's definitely one thing I've had to, you. [00:20:14] Speaker B: Know. [00:20:16] Speaker C: Continue to improve on as my year with Forest Hill is continues. Actually a year and a bit now my mental calendar is a little off, but is yeah just to sort of keep a level head. And I would say too just because I know a lot of students, especially you know, in fourth year, it's a. It is hard in this day and age to get a job in the field that you want right out of university. I consider myself really lucky that this opportunity fell to me and I think a big part of it too is just sort of, you know, good things come to those who wait. You know, there's everything happens for a reason, like life hard to. Hard to predict what actually happens. I wanted to. My plan was to graduate university and spend some time traveling and I had a week that I went to my cottage and that was it and that was my travel for post university and then jump right into work. So you know, sometimes even the best laid plans don't work and it's just do your best to put yourself in a position where you can succeed and get opportunities and good things will happen. [00:21:22] Speaker B: Wonderful body. Maybe you should have been more specific because now you're traveling to Scarborough and Markham and Vaughan. I'm sure all the travel you could want. Maybe you should have been more specific. [00:21:30] Speaker C: In the arena is. I've gotten very comfortable. [00:21:33] Speaker B: Well Bodhi, I mean again you said you know, good things happen to go this weight and all those things and that's true but good things also happen to people who are open minded to, to opportunity. And that certainly sounds like it's your, it was your experience there, the fact that you were able, if you've got ambition to work in the sport industry, looking where the sport, where the rubber sort of meets the road in sport. And that is that these associations, again in a paid position, fantastic. But also in these volunteer, even on boards. I talked to students in all my classes about that. We need, we as Canadians need more young people involved in young people sport. I mean it is a crucial sort of element of this is that you have well intentioned parents and older people that are trying to administer sport best they can. But the more young people that get involved in sport and have a better understanding what it was like for younger people, the better it's going to be for younger people. So we appreciate, we as a sports industry appreciate what you're doing, Bode, and we can't wait to have you even back in person soon and talking to our students. Thank you so much, Bodie. [00:22:31] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for having me. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Getting off to a rough start. Spill your drink from around the corner. You might think I'm awkward. I'm always checking the time. [00:22:43] Speaker D: So that's Bode, a really fresh perspective. [00:22:45] Speaker B: On a journey through Brock and then into the Canadian sport industry immediately after. [00:22:49] Speaker D: And I think it's something that I really want you to hear. Bode's message there about getting involved and. [00:22:54] Speaker B: The things that he's learning on the. [00:22:55] Speaker D: Fly there and, and the value in that experience. And I encourage you, if there's an association not just in hockey, but in any sport in Canada, any sport that's near and dear to you and you feel like you want to get involved if you want to join a board, if you want to help with policy. [00:23:09] Speaker B: Revision, if you maybe remember from second. [00:23:10] Speaker D: Year we talked about this in sport policy and governance when we mentioned that you can draft policies, you can do policy evaluations for them. They're always incredibly grateful to have young, smart minds like yourselves helping out those associations. [00:23:23] Speaker B: I think there's a lot that can. [00:23:23] Speaker D: Be learned from getting hands on with those associations and also furthering your career as you move into the industry and hopefully securing wonderful paid positions. So this week's audio response relates directly to both Bode and Jeremy's guest lectures that you've heard this week. And this week's question is how can working with nonprofit sports organizations like Hockey Canada and Forest Hill Hockey association help to solve some of the problems in the hockey industry as a whole? Right now that question again. How can working with nonprofits like Hockey Canada and Forest Hill work to solve some of the problems that we've talked about in class in the hockey industry as a whole? I need you to be specific, be specific about some of the things that Bode and Jeremy talked about and really examine your own role as you set forth in the industry. Not again. You can think about hockey specifically for this course, but you can also think more broadly about the Canadian sport industry as a whole. That's what I'm looking for. I would like you to be self reflective here to talk about your own skills, how what you're going to bring to this industry and how you're going to help solve these problems and whether or not you think that nonprofits can help address those problems that we've talked about in class so far. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Alright. [00:24:31] Speaker D: I'm looking forward to listening to them and I really appreciate you all putting the effort every week. It will add up throughout the semester, I guarantee it. You look at the course outline in terms of what these are worth. Those audio responses are worth a fair chunk of your grade and if you're doing it and you're putting in a good effort every week, you're gonna do absolutely fine. So have a great week and I'm looking forward to listening. [00:25:00] Speaker A: But will you stick around if I do? I think I found a part of me beside.