After a short stint playing professionally overseas, a veteran Bison is coming home to the Prairies.
Long-time U of M Bisons womenâs hockey team goaltender Amanda Schubert will rejoin the herd to play out her final year of eligibility in the 2019-20 season.fter a short stint playing professionally overseas, a veteran Bison is coming home to the Prairies.
Previously the Winnipeg-born netminder played the 2017-18 season with KJT of Finlandâs Liiga Women, returning to Winnipeg to coach at the Rink Hockey Academy during the 2018-19 season. The decision to come back to the Bisons, though, was a no-brainer for Schubert.
âI just wanted to keep playing hockey,â she said.
âCoaching is great and I love the game, but I donât think I was fully ready to give up playing. And I think that was a big part of it, the whole dressing room atmosphere, the game, just competitive hockey.
âI love those things and thatâs something I missed [âŚ] Itâs cool that this opportunity came up and itâs something I couldnât say not to or wouldnât say no to.
âYou can only do it for so long and time goes so fast and this doesnât happen every day.â
The process behind her return was fairly simple. She knew the herd had lost much of its goaltending depth with the departures of Lauren Taraschuk and Devan Johnson, and all it took was a text to Bisons assistant coach Sean Fisher.
Although the exchange and all thought of a return started as a bit of a joke, Fisher got Schubert to contact head coach Jon Rempel, and from there it got real.
âWe were just playing it off and then I was like âI kind of want to see what Jon saysâ and he was like âIf youâre serious we should meet up,ââ she said.
Their face-to-face meeting lasted a couple hours and by the end Schubert was back in the fold.
Rempel expressed interest in having a veteran presence in the dressing room, with the herd getting significantly younger and greener in the upcoming season.
A large part of Schubertâs role with the team in her final year will undoubtedly be mentoring rookie netminder Kaitlyn Nault, and second-year backstop Erin Fargey. But Schubert is not coming back to the herd just to be a mentor.
âIâm just going to work hard, and I know I really only have a year left so thereâs nothing left to lose for me,â Schubert said.
She will likely be relied on heavily for her professional experience.
This experience is also something Schubert says will help her readjust to competitive hockey after a year off.
âI think that it was just the mindset of going out [on the ice] and you had nothing to lose,â she said.
âI think thatâs a mindset we can have [on the Bisons].â
âI mean, facing as many shots as I did when I was out there definitely helped, but more than skill-wise it was more of a mindset that I think Iâm coming back withâ Schubert said.
Schubertâs familiarity with the Manitoba coaching staff will also be a benefit, especially her close relationship with assistant coach â and former teammate â Venla Hovi.
âItâs nice that I know them and for Venla â knowing her on a more personal level rather than just like a coach â I think she brings a lot of good to the staff, and I think what she brings in the sense of experience is also going to be a big thing for us,â Schubert said.
Schubert herself has built quite the coaching resume, and while she is focused on playing her best game on the ice, she will remain head goalie coach with Rink Hockey Academyâs womenâs program for the upcoming season.
âIâm going to be pretty busy with hockey, and one thing that I think I learned from coaching is that I learned to basically work hard,â she said.
âI donât like when a goalie comes to an ice-time and then is slacking and making excuses as to why they canât do whatever it is weâre asking them to do.â
The life split between playing and coaching has already seemingly paid dividends for the Bisons, as Schubert will bring a small cheering section to her games this season.
âItâll be interesting and I already have some of my athletes telling me theyâre looking forward to coming to some of the games, so thatâs pretty cool.â