X-Women Hockey welcomes two new assistant coaches

ANTIGONISH, NS ­– StFX X-Women hockey coach Ben Berthiaume is pleased to announce the addition of two new assistant coaches to the program in Trevor MacIssac and Bryan Smith.

Both local natives of Antigonish, N.S., the pair will join Berthiaume and current assistant coaches Willie Joe Sofan and Jenna Downey for a well-rounded program.

"I am very pleased to add two great people to the X-Women Hockey program," comments Coach Berthiaume. "We are very fortunate living in a small area to attract great people to help our program succeed. Both Trevor and Bryan will bring a lot of experience through their hockey backgrounds, as well as their careers in the teaching profession."

Both full-time teachers for the better part of the past two decades, MacIsaac and Smith will lend some of their extra time to the X-Women program beginning this fall, and both have extensive coaching backgrounds with women's hockey.

MacIsaac spent four years as an assistant coach in the OUA conference with the UOIT Ridgebacks women's hockey team in Oshawa, Ont. He was an assistant coach in the Provincial Women's Hockey League (PWHL), spending four seasons with the Mississauga Jr. Chiefs. In addition, MacIssac also coached high school girls hockey, winning two Ontario championships as the five-year head coach at St. Basil the Great College School.

Smith has been coaching minor hockey for 11 years with the Antigonish Minor Hockey Association (AMHA) and Fundy Highland Female Hockey. The Hockey Nova Scotia coach of the year in 2017, he spent the last four seasons as head coach with the Fundy Highland Subway Selects. Smith has been the power skating coach for the X-Women since 2011, and has also been a long-time skills and skating instructor at local hockey schools including the StFX X-Women summer camp and the Highland Edge Hockey Academy.

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