Greenwood ready to lead U15 Wheat Kings

Emma Greenwood never pictured herself behind the bench when she hung up her skates in 2018, but now, it’s where she thrives.

The 26-year-old Brandon product is set to make her head coaching debut with the Brandon Wheat Kings’ U15 AAA female club for the 2025–26 season after serving as an assistant last year.

“I’m just super excited for this new season,” said Greenwood on Wednesday. “I really kind of got obsessed with it last year and just wanted to continue to have a bigger role and keep up the female coaching in Brandon in the female hockey program. I think it’s really good to have females in there.”

Greenwood found out she’d be taking over as bench boss in June, after last year’s head coach, Jalyn Elmes, accepted a new role with the 16U girls’ prep team at Purcell Collegiate in British Columbia. Greenwood said she jumped at the opportunity to coach many of the team’s returning players from last season and is excited to be the kind of role model she didn’t have growing up.

“Once the PWHL kind of came to light and you have Jessica Campbell coaching in the NHL now, I think it’s just so big for females now in the hockey programs, where we have way more opportunity than we ever had,” she said. “Showing girls that you can do it is so important. I never had a lot of females in my sports growing up, so I think it just makes a huge difference for these girls.”

Greenwood first discovered her love for the game at eight years old and rose through the ranks as a goalie, playing bantam with the Westman Wildcats before winning AAA midget championships with both the Pembina Valley Hawks and the Yellowhead Chiefs of the Manitoba Female Hockey League.

She then spent two seasons in the crease with the Trojans at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology before deciding to step away from hockey and shift her focus to her career, studying criminal justice in Lethbridge for two years.

When COVID-19 struck, Greenwood returned home to Brandon, and in 2022, she slowly began reconnecting with the hockey community, except this time, from another side of the boards.

“I really looked up to Karissa Kirkup in her successes and just seeing her be an active coach in the community, so I just wanted to get back into it,” Greenwood said.

She started by dropping in on the occasional ice time, offering goalie tips and input where she could, and eventually worked her way up to the U15 squad, which needed more coaching support at the time.

With a full season behind the bench already under her belt, Greenwood said she wants to maintain the same coaching philosophy that shaped the program’s culture last year. Greenwood believes at this age, many people fixate on “who’s the fanciest player” and “who will be the next (Connor) Bedard?” instead of recognizing the team aspect — who’s supporting their teammates the most or who’s giving someone a tap on the butt after a bad shift.

“The team always comes first. Teams that are successful are successful because of the team aspect,” Greenwood said. “Really teaching that team aspect and doing it together is what we will be prioritizing. Just getting them to change their mindset instead of thinking, ‘I have to come to the games and score 10 goals.’”

Greenwood said Brandon’s identity will be a relentless, high-energy team that never quits and stays hard on the puck every game. She’s confident her returning players will set the tone and lead the younger ones in carrying that mindset.

Up front, Shayla Duncalfe, who posted 15 points in 27 games last season, is a talented, hard-working force who grinds it out in the corners, while Brittyn DeVlieger and Cora McBeth are well-rounded players whose leadership helps keep the team’s energy high throughout each game. Chelsea Sun adds steady reliability on the back end as a stay-at-home defender, and between the pipes, Alana Champagne returns after posting seven wins in 18 games, along with a 2.27 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage.

“She was our brick wall last year, and she was super exciting to watch, so I’m really excited to watch her do some great things again this year,” Greenwood said of Champagne.

Last season, the Wheat Kings posted an even 14-14 record and found themselves on the outside looking in Round 1 of the postseason after the Yellowhead Chiefs defeated them in a best-of-three series.

Greenwood said although the team didn’t go nearly as far as they had hoped, there were plenty of positives to take away from last year.

“We just saw so much improvement in them, and it was just so exciting to see,” she said. “There were a lot of little tiny things that we just needed to correct and hammer into them, and they bounced back and learned from it. They worked hard for us every single game.”

Former Assiniboine Cougar Mya Pearce will also be joining Brandon’s coaching staff this upcoming season. Pearce grew up in Manitou, playing for Pembina Valley, and spent the last two seasons with AC, tallying a combined 32 points over 45 games.

“I’m lucky enough to have her come help me,” said Greenwood. “She’s kind of local, so she knows the ins and outs of Brandon, and she’s super excited to help.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com