Season 3, Episode 13- Shauna Bookal, Executive Director of Field Hockey Ontario

In this episode, William welcomes back a familiar face back to cohost, as he teams up with Neville Madill to interview Shauna Bookal, SPMA alumnus and the current Executive Director for Field Hockey Ontario! Shauna starts off the show by sharing her extremely committed and driven mindset that she has used for all of her years working in the industry (13:53). She talks about her time spent at 3 different universities (Brock SPMA, Durham College Sport/Event Management, West Virginia University Masters of Sport Management) and shares how the time she spent at all three fueled her passion for the events side of sport, which led into multiple opportunities with assisting in major games, such as the Invictus Games in Toronto and the Canada 55+ Games in Brampton (17:09). She also elaborates on the massive differences on the college level with sport events in Canada, compared to NCAA events in the U.S, while going into detail about what a major games experience is like- spoiler, almost no day at a major games is "typical!" (25:45) Shauna then talks to us about her tenure with Field Hockey Ontario. Shauna tells us how she got her start at the organization, where she ascended to Executive Director from her Event Coordinator role in an extremely quick timeframe (30:59). She elaborates on the transferability of skills in sport, (32:19), and the strategies that Field Hockey Ontario is implementing to continually grow the sport each year through partnerships, recruiting new Canadians, and implementing the Long Term Athlete Development model to ensure that athletes get the optimal support that they need in training or in game action (33:18). Finally, Shauna talks to us about her involvement in the Black Female Coach Mentorship Program which creates equitable opportunities, support, and leadership development opportunities for Black female coaches across the country (41:58). Thank you to Shauna for joining the show! Keep up with the podcast on social! Follow us using @spmacouncilpodcast on Instagram and TikTok! Subscribe to our audio/video feeds on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, and YouTube! #MaximizeYourMindset