Alumni Spotlight Interview: Angie Mason

Angie Mason is a force to be reckoned with! Mason grew up in St. Albert, and had always played the highest level of women’s hockey. As many female hockey players can relate, grade 11/12 is a pivotal time in one’s hockey career where you choose to potentially pursue hockey throughout college and make it professionally. Mason took a different route, she was quote: “hockey’d out” and chose to pursue different passions. Her passions led to specializing in structural engineering including studying at University of Alberta and eventually doing her masters at the University of Toronto.

Two years into her studies at University of Alberta, Mason felt ready to dive back into hockey, but wanted to ensure it was realistic with her engineering goals. She was offered a position with the Fort Saskatchewan Fury team and ultimately led her to play for the Alberta Junior Hockey League. She appreciated all the friendships and familiar faces during her time as a player with AJFHL, but it was the realistic once a week practice that allowed her to continue her love for hockey while studying her passions of engineering.

Mason’s time with AJFHL felt aligned as the league has a serious feel, playing for championships and was overall a positive experience. She said goodbye to the league when she headed off to Toronto to study for her masters. She joined a Senior Women’s Hockey Team where the majority of the players played hockey in college, Mason was the only one on the team who didn’t play post secondary hockey. However, she felt welcomed and enjoyed the experience. She used her hockey-life balance skills learned in the AJFHL towards this league and thrived.

Eventually, Mason moved back home to Edmonton and got started on her career in engineering. It was at this time where her coaching journey began. Prior to the pandemic, Mason would coach a Bantam Female Hockey Team, and then become Assistant Coach for the Fort Saskatchewan Fury team. When the pandemic hit, like for many, Mason took almost 2 years off of hockey but pursued other fitness regimes. When the AJFHL was back up and running, Mason was offered a co-head coach position - that is where her true passion lied. She quickly recognized the importance of not only coaching in the rink, but also looking at what was going on outside of the rink for the players on her team. Mental health and other endeavors like studies/professional work was something she would once again see, but this time from a coach/mentor point of view.

In Mason’s personal life, she found herself very comfortable in her career - a goal that was very important to her. The time finally felt right to dive back in and attempt to go professional with hockey. This is when the stars aligned, and she joined the Swiss Women’s League. During her time in this league so far, she has learned so much! With coaching on her mind, she is taking in the experience to hopefully bring back and coach for AJFHL again. A key note she’s come to realize is that coaching isn’t necessarily all about the technical sides of the game, instead Mason hopes to encourage female athletes to think outside of the box. Not everyone’s journey is linear, and that is okay! As mentioned, a lot of people go hard right out of the gate when it comes to professional hockey, but there are definitely other ways to go about it. Pursuing other passions and having a career is do-able when you’re a hockey player. Angie Mason is living proof you can have it all!