Jonathon Robert, James Edwards

University of New Brunswick · Faculty of Kinesiology

The study examines the regulations and strategies implemented by management of club hockey organizations and governing hockey bodies in the Edmonton region of Alberta, Canada to retain their talented youth athletes. Interviews were conducted with 13 representatives of six club hockey organizations and three governing bodies. The findings revealed t...

National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I schools compete with the Canadian Hockey League for top Canadian youth minor hockey players (ages 14-18). To address the challenges of adhering to NCAA's eligibility and recruitment regulations, the NCAA commissioners created College Hockey Inc. (CHI). One challenge facing new institutions...

How are novel organizations able to build a positive reputation while attempting to enter into a system with established organizations? To address this, we examined the field of elite level amateur hockey. Private Secondary Schools (PSS) novel in that they offer a non-traditional pathway for players with respect to fielding elite level hockey teams...

This is an introductory piece to a special edition of the Journal of Emerging Sport Studies that grew out of The Hockey Conference in 2021. The conference is a biennial event held at various locations throughout North America. It has instrumentally advanced scholarship on ice hockey and attracts prominent members of the hockey community globally as...

The baseball stadium is where fans and spectators gather for shared experiences. Through an analysis of a personal sport-fan narrative of a son’s account of attending live games with his father, this chapter examines notions of the embodied game-day experience, which is influenced by fans’ connection to and sense of heritage and nostalgia. Tangible...

Older adults in long-term care are sedentary. Standing is recommended to reduce sedentary time, but there is limited research on long-term care residents' acceptability of standing interventions. The acceptability of the Stand If You Can (SIYC) randomized clinical trial among long-term care residents was explored using a single intrinsic qualitativ...

Amateur sports organizations rely on volunteer coaches to ensure that successful programmes are implemented. As such, in Canada, it has become common practice that these coaches must participate in minimum educational experiences and demonstrate their coaching abilities through an evaluation. With a low number of coaches achieving certified status...

Background Most older adults do not engage in regular physical activity. However, more research on options to partake in regular exercise in this population by reducing barriers and enhancing enablers while still reaching benefits is needed. Methods Using embedded mixed methods, 10 inactive older adults over the age of 65 completed a 3-week square...

The purpose of the current investigation was to empirically evaluate the career progression of USPORTS men’s varsity hockey players to understand if USPORTS men’s hockey is a legitimate pathway to a professional playing career. To address this, USPORTS men’s varsity hockey rosters, from 2000-2018, were captured and analyzed for athletes who progres...

Community sport organizations provide youth with opportunities to engage in organized sport through the dedication of volunteers. One group important to the implementation of programs are coaches. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore the sacrifices of a volunteer coach at the recreational, competitive, and high-performance level i...

Background This study proposed a 3-week home exercise program using a square-stepping exercise (SSE) to explore if it could address common barriers and enhance enablers of regular exercise among older adults. Methods Using embedded mixed methods, 10 inactive older adults over the age of 65 completed the proposed program in conjunction with follow-u...

This paper offers a review of institutional work and its utilization in sport management. We detailed how institutional work offers a modern paradigm of institutional theory that addresses calls for examining how institutions are created, maintained, and disrupted in sport. Upon review of the institutional work research in sport management, we argu...

The purpose of this research was to explore different issues and controversies found in media narratives about hosting the Heritage Classic Ice-Hockey Game, on Canada’s Parliament Hill. This paper utilized the Eight-step Qualitative-Temporal Visual Analysis and Narrative methodology to look at how Canadian media framed the discussion around the hos...

The National Coaching Certification Program is an adult education program in Canada that provides education to individuals engaging in sport coaching. In this program, certification is achieved through a successful evaluation. This research examines the perceptions of master coach developers, leaders of coach education in Canada, specifically explo...

Research question: The purpose of this study was to explore how the unionization movement of Northwestern University (NU) football players in the NCAA almost disrupted the institution of US collegiate sports that would challenge the amateur rules for student-athletes. Research methods: Qualitative research methods were employed, by collecting data...

Elite hockey players in North America face a unique developmental pathway where there are two legitimate avenues to compete: the National Collegiate Athletics Association and Canadian Hockey League. The challenge for these athletes is to determine which is the best option at a young age (15–16 years old). This study used rational decision-making th...

Eleven parents in the Canadian Maritimes involved with Midget Triple A teams, the highest possible league before Major Junior (i.e., the Canadian Hockey League), were interviewed to explore the various ways they provided support in elite youth hockey. A descriptive phenomenological framework was used to explore the experiences parents had supportin...

The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I women's hockey programs that exist throughout the US are of interest to many Canadian women hockey players looking to continue participating at a high level of competition. There are currently 311 Canadian women players on NCAA Division I school rosters in women's collegiate hockey; th...

This report was completed for the Coaching Association of Canada.

The purpose of this study was to examine how Canadian women’s hockey stakeholders view the elite female hockey program and its impact upon the ability of a player to progress along the athlete development pathway. This research applied institutional work through institutional maintenance to address this purpose. A total of 21 semi-structured interv...

Winter activities, such as outdoor skating are arguably part of Canada’s identity; however, due to changing social, political, legal, economic, and environmental factors, one component of winter activities that is in jeopardy is the outdoor rink. The purpose of this study was to explore the media framing surrounding issues within media articles reg...

Responding to a pressure to increase athlete enjoyment and improve athlete development, governing bodies in sport have sought to adapt policies and programs. This study describes a governing association’s failed attempt at selling an optional change to some local associations. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with coaches and b...

Rational/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how the management of resource capabilities of Rugby Provincial Sport Organizations (PSOs) in Canada can affect athlete transition from the provincial to that national level. Design/Methodology/Approach: A mixed methods approach using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were admin...

Coach developers (CDs) are an integral aspect of the coaching education system in Canada, as they are responsible for the delivery of the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) to coaches. A means of understanding the role of CDs within the Canadian coaching education system is to gain insight into the enablers and challenges of the interor...

The purpose of this study is to explore and critique the collaborative governance structure within a small province, such as New Brunswick (NB), Canada, by identifying the challenges of implementing a national standardized program such as the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP). Collaborative governance is understood as two or more organ...

Competition for success in international sport has increased considerably during the last decade. As a result, nations across the world have been searching for the most effective ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors and gain a competitive advantage (De Bosscher, van Bottenburg, Shibli, & De Knop, 2013). While this may occur betwe...

Hockey is arguably part of Canada’s national identity (Gruneau & Whitson, 1993). As it was stated in the Toronto Star (2004), “Hockey is the thread that weaves through Canada’s culture, through villages, towns, cities, provinces and country” (A1). While, “the popularity of hockey remains strong across the country, and the links between sport, commu...

Hockey as sport and recreational activity is often cited as an important element of Canadian identity and the hockey rink exemplifies many Canadian’s connections and passion for the game (Adams, 2006; Gruneau & Whitson, 1993). The media are quick to highlight the connection between hockey and Canadian identity as indicated in the Toronto Star (20,...

Management of organizations seek to understand a customer’s perceptions of their products, organization, and brand. By gaining this knowledge, brand managers are able to facilitate and/or enhance the relationship between the organization and the customer, which can ultimately have a number of different outcomes that includes customer loyalty, a wil...

The “purity of sport” has been extensively challenged with the evolution of technology and the pursuit of competitive advantage by athletes through doping within competitions. This evolution has resulted in managers of sport organizations and institutions creating and implementing strategies, policies, and procedures that monitor, educate, regulate...

How are novel organizations able to build a positive reputation while attempting to enter into a system with established organizations? To address this, we examined the field of elite-level amateur hockey. Private Secondary Schools (PSS) are novel in that they offer a nontraditional pathway for players with respect to fielding elite-level hockey te...

The purpose of this paper is to examine why athletes do not dope in sport. The research treats the ‘problem’ of doping as an issue of ‘control’ and draws on control theory (Hopwood, 1974; Byers, 2013) to analyze athletes choices not to engage in doping. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with cur- rent Canadian athletes, former athletes, coa...

Organizations in a sport system compete against one another while working together to sustain a competitive environment and to provide opportunities for competition at the provincial/state, national, or international level. This paper is a multi-case study comparison of the elite sport development systems of Canada and Sweden to explore the differe...

More Time, More Money, More Driving, More Games: Understanding Why Parents Enroll Their Children in Youth ”Rep” Hockey”.

Introduction The lack of competition within international women’s hockey has placed the sport in a precarious position, particularly in the Olympic program (Brophy, 2013; Brady, 2013; Spencer, 2010; 2013). The concern generates debate over how countries may better develop elite female hockey players and improve their women’s national team programs....

Edwards and Byers discuss their approach to assessing the reputational legacy left from major sporting events, focusing on how the media reacted to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil T he 2014 World Cup was intended to renew Brazil's reputation from the moment that FIFA awarded the event to the country in October 2007. A primary reason that Brazil bid fo...

Byers discuss their approach to assessing the reputational legacy left from major sporting events, focusing on how the media reacted to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil T he 2014 World Cup was intended to renew Brazil's reputation from the moment that FIFA awarded the event to the country in October 2007. A primary reason that Brazil bid for the World...

Participation in youth sport has been recognized for myriad developmental benefits. When one considers sport participation, there are a number of different delivery models. Participation can be recreational in nature or competitively driven. Regardless of competitive level, it is important for sport managers to understand the drivers that influence...

Coaches and coaching are a critical facet of any amateur sport organization as they are pivotal in the administration and implementation of athlete development programs and strategies. The effectiveness of coach training, through the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), is reliant upon various stakeholder groups that include: the Learnin...

For Canadians, hockey is “our game” and is a seminal aspect of Canadian identity (Gruneau & Whitson, 1993). Canadian’s have demonstrated this contention by winning the most Olympic and World Junior Championship medals, and having the most players drafted to the NHL. However, the Canadian market share is decreasing and it may not be “our game” forev...

It has been 80 years since the concept of professionalisation began to take root within the sociology and management disciplines. Similarly, the study of the professionalisation of sport has a relatively prominent and longstanding history within the discipline of sport management. Notwithstanding its continued usage and importance, there has been l...

Focusing on system efficacy to improve athlete development pathways

Hockey clubs in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada are a fascinating setting to study as they merge issues related to youth sport participation and volunteerism with elite level sport development. We examine the management of elite level hockey clubs, through interviews, to understand how the organizations develop and implement processes that enable them to...

Hockey clubs in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada are a fascinating setting to study as they merge issues related to youth sport participation and volunteerism with elite level sport development. We examine the management of elite level hockey clubs, through interviews, to understand how the organizations develop and implement processes that enable them to...

There are two pivotal transition points for Canadian elite level minor hockey players and parents; the first transitional point is when a Canadian player and parent is transitioning from the Peewee (11-12 years old) level to the Bantam (13-14 years old) level, and must decide whether to try out for club level hockey or continue to play at a house l...

Amateur sport organisations are funded through a variety of means, including government funding, corporate sponsorship and/or private donations. In the UK and Canada, amateur sport programs are primarily funded through government grants (Garrett, 2004; Kikulis, 2000; Slack and Hinings, 1994). While sport organisations have provided a rich setting t...

The purpose of this paper is to review arena construction since 1995 in small- to mid-sized Canadian communities, where Canadian Hockey League (CHL) teams act as anchors for their respective facilities. Following an overview of facilities, development patterns are compared across leagues within the CHL, and to the process that occurs at the major l...