“I thought I couldn’t wait to get that smell of stinky hockey gear out of my car.”
When Sonya Sharp’s eldest son wore his minor hockey team jersey for the last time, she suddenly realized this marked the end of an era. Starting at age four with Tiny Tykes, then playing for Timbits, through to now aging out of his U18 league, Sonya had been there with him every step of the way. She had also been part of a now long established community of other hockey parents, mostly mothers.
It was a bittersweet moment for the mother of two, with both boys involved in hockey. Sonya’s younger son had always played goalie, which meant a different experience for her, without the same level of community. Theirs was a hockey home; her husband also coached.
“It was a moment in his life that, I think, affected me more than it did him. It shaped me as a parent. Watching all of these other parents and their children, we all grew up together.” – Sonya Sharp
Being a hockey parent means a substantial commitment, often more than with other sports. Early mornings and evening practices, late night wins and losses, driving, traveling, game attendance, expensive equipment, emotional support and much more. Despite this, Sonya, an entrepreneur and local Calgary politician who also ran for Calgary mayor in 2025, doesn’t feel relieved to have more time on her hands. Instead, she began to feel a sense of loss when her son’s name was called at the end of his final game.
Relying on the hockey family
Without her ‘hockey family’ as she calls it, Sonya believes she wouldn’t have been able to maintain the commitment and schedule.
Some of the parents Sonya met when her son played for the first time are now her closest friends. As sports parents, they’ve experienced many firsts together—the first time their kids were on the ice together, even though they didn’t know how to skate yet, the first time they were injured, the first goal.
Even when she sat on Calgary City Council, Sonya tried never to miss a game. Those many years of practices and games create a special bond between hockey moms and their kids.
“If you’re stuck at work or have another sick child at home, and you can’t make a practice, someone always steps up to help. If someone asks me to pick up their kid, of course, I can. You do it because you know someone will do it for you. It’s like a village.” – Sonya Sharp
Sonya believes community sport is critical for children’s mental health and that being part of a team taught her son important life lessons including sacrifice, compromise and collaboration, even when it wasn’t fun.
In her world, she can tell who has played a team sport and who hasn’t. It’s about being able to let it go, to compromise. She had also played team sports, but was a swimmer growing up, where she was always competing against herself and her time. She views team sports as different; the players never know who they are going to come up against, so they need to learn to work together quickly.
A few years ago, Sonya thought she couldn’t wait to not have stinky hockey gear in her car. Now she knows she will miss it when her second son plays his final minor hockey league game.
