Natalie Korenic pulled off her own version of a “hat trick” at last weekend’s Sixth Annual Pacific Coast Female Rep Classic at the Richmond Ice Centre.
The 26-year-old is not only in her first-season as head coach of the host Richmond Pee Wee “AA” Ravens, she has teamed up with her dad to serve as tournament director. If that’s not enough, Korenic was also be on the ice as a member of the Richmond Devils as two regular season games in the South Coast Women’s Hockey League were showcased as part of the weekend schedule.
The Korenics certainly did some terrific work since taking on the tournament last spring.
This year’s 24-team event featured entries from California, Ontario, Alberta and throughout B.C. The San Jose Junior Sharks have teams in all three divisions — Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget.
“We have been planning this for a long time. We have gone to San Jose several times and know they have good teams down there so we emailed every single California team we could find. Every team in Alberta and Ontario too,” said Korenic. “We’re excited at how it all come together.“Markham made a huge trip out of it. The players are wearing hoodies that say ‘Vancouver 2018’ and with the all the girls being in Grade 12, they toured UBC, along with the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Steveston.
“For our own teams, it’s hugely important to have different opponents to play against and hopefully they are better teams. You don’t want to come in and walk all over everyone. That’s just not fun for everyone.”
It’s been a steady ascend that led to Korenic landing her first head coaching position with the association. For over a decade she had served as an assistant coach at all age levels. She discovered Pee Wee (11-and-12-year-olds) was her best fit.
“It was the age group that I really missed doing and that’s where I wanted to be. It’s a lot of fun and I’m loving it,” said Korenic who will be taking her young squad to a tournament in Regina later this season.
Hockey has been such a big part of the Steveston-London and UBC graduate’s life.
Her parents — John and Pat Korenic — ran the Richmond Girls Ice Hockey Association for many years before stepping away to launch the Richmond Devils Women’s Hockey Club. It provides graduating players an opportunity to continue their careers at a very competitive level and that’s why they wanted to feature a couple of games at the Rep Classic.
Korenic didn’t hesitate getting her dad involved as a tournament director given he oversaw the association’s Ice Classic that takes place each spring.
“I wanted to help out and the board said they had no one doing the tournament. I thought I’m sure my dad would like to do it so I volunteered us to do it then went home and told him,” she said.
Korenic, who works as a marketing manager for a bio tech company in Vancouver, is thrilled to be continuing what has become of family tradition of giving up so much of her time to minor hockey.
“My parents were always so involved in everything and that’s a big part of it for me,” she said. “I think it’s important that when you come out of an association to give something back when it has given you so much.”
The host Ravens reached the final of the Midget “AA” championship game before dropping a 4-0 decision to San Jose.
Red Deer defeated San Jose to capture the Bantam “AA” title while Kelowna was crowned Pee Wee “AA” champions after a 4-1 win over North Shore.
Korenic’s squad finished fourth after a 3-2 loss to South Island in the bronze medal game.
