SPARTA is the annual publication produced by the Trinity Western University Athletics Department, telling the stories of our Spartan community.
Words | Bailey Broadbent
Photographs | Svea Moody & Mark Janzen
It started with a phone call.
"TWU reached out in a really trying period for me and my family, after we experienced an immediate loss," says Trinity Western women's hockey coach Jean Laforest. "I was reminded that, despite the challenges in life, there are always people who are praying for me and who are here for me."
It was March 2014, and after guiding Mount Royal University's men's hockey team to a playoff berth in only the team's second year playing in Canada West, Laforest stepped down immediately following the completion of his sixth season as the team's bench boss.
With the sudden passing of his wife, Laforest opted to take an indefinite leave from the sport he loved to tend to his family.
During that same time, Carol Hofer, Trinity Western's Associate Director of Athletics, reached out on behalf of the Spartans to Mount Royal's Athletic Director, Karla Karch, to offer support and prayer for Laforest and his family.
"I was notified about that phone call and that offer of support and prayer," Laforest says. "I said to myself, that's exactly the kind of place that I want to be affiliated with one day."
For five years, that was Laforest's only connection to TWU.
In the spring of 2019, the Spartans men's and women's hockey teams were officially voted in to join Canada West and U SPORTS, with both teams set to begin play at Canada's highest level of university sport in 2020-21. Immediately, the Spartans began the search for a head coach for their women's hockey program.
Laforest, who had spent the previous four years as an athletic coordinator with the Simcoe County District School Board in Midhurst, Ont., just happened to stumble upon an advertisement for the position.
"I just happened to come across the job posting one day – I wasn't even looking for a job," Laforest says. "I was drawn to the position because of that call five years earlier."
Following a video interview with the Spartans search committee, Laforest flew to Langley, B.C., for a second interview with the program.
"He shared his story about his journey that brought him to that point," Hofer says, recalling Laforest's interview. "He added that he was prompted to apply for the position because of the message that was passed on to him years ago."
During Laforest's second interview with the Spartans, Hofer received a phone call that changed her life.
Her father in Calgary had suddenly passed away.
"I stepped out of that interview an absolute wreck." Hofer says.
Hofer immediately booked a flight to Calgary. On her way out, she ran into Laforest, who, knowing her difficult circumstance, gave her a brief word of encouragement.
At the airport the following morning, Hofer was overcome with emotion. "I was barely holding it all together, realizing nobody there knew my entire world had just fallen out from underneath me."
Upon making it through security, she felt a touch on her elbow. It was Laforest.
The two had another conversation, with Laforest encouraging her in her faith to trust in God during her difficult time. "I had cried out just moments before," Hofer says. "Jean was an answer to prayer."
They then went their separate ways in the terminal. The two had yet to realize they were on the same flight to Calgary. Then, upon boarding the plane, they realized they were sitting in the same row. "I just kind of laughed," Hofer says. "I couldn't believe it."
The two exchanged conversation throughout the flight, with Laforest again bringing up the phone call he received five years prior.
"What prompted me to be in this seat at this very time was somebody reaching out to me during my difficult time," he told her. "They were praying for me and were there for me. I will be there for you."
Reluctant to share with him previously, Hofer finally told Laforest about that call.
"I was the one who reached out to you during that time, Jean."
Laforest was stunned.
It was in that moment God closed the circle for Laforest – bringing to him the person who inspired him half a decade ago and who helped bring him healing.
"I never thought in my wildest dreams I would come face-to-face with the person who sent that message," he told her.
"Everything you've expressed that I was able to do, you have just done for me in my greatest time of need," she responded. "I have seen that same compassion from you."
For the two, the experience was evidence of faith in action.
"We all encounter times in life when the waters are rough and you just need someone to help reel you back into God," Laforest says. "We were both able to do that for each other."
With his father being an ex-professional hockey player, Laforest was surrounded by hockey from an early age in Ontario. His passion to play the game at the post-secondary level eventually led him to McMaster University, where he played with the hockey team while pursuing a sociology degree.
But when the university cut the men's hockey program in 1989, he was forced to make a choice: continue playing and transfer to another school or pursue something else.
In essence, he chose both.
"I realized the next best thing to playing was coaching, and if it was an opportunity to stay in the game I was willing to give it a shot."
Laforest opted to stay at McMaster to finish his degree, while continuing his involvement in hockey by accepting an assistant coaching role with a local midget-aged team.
"It was a great fit and I discovered I actually loved coaching even more than I did playing," Laforest says. "Being able to lead and build a team, and oversee an entire program was something I just absolutely fell in love with right away."
Following his graduation with a degree in Sociology and Physical Education, Laforest found early success in his newfound passion.
After a stint coaching Junior A hockey, Laforest became an assistant coach with the University of Western Ontario (now Western University), where he helped guide the team to a berth in the CIAU (now U SPORTS) national championship tournament in 1994-95.
Laforest then moved into the professional coaching ranks, taking the reins of the Shreveport Mudbugs of the now defunct Western Professional Hockey League from 1997 to 2000, leading them to back-to-back league titles in 1999 and 2000.
Following his second championship-winning season, Laforest moved back to the university level, taking over as the head coach of the men's hockey team at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he led the Blugolds from 2002 to 2005.
After three years with the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, where he was named the NCHA (Northern Collegiate Hockey Association) Coach of the Year in 2004, Laforest accepted a job as the head coach of the Youngstown Steelhounds in the CHL (Central Hockey League) for the 2005-06 season.
From there, Laforest went out west, taking over as the men's hockey head coach at Mount Royal University. While with the Cougars from 2008 to 2014, he earned the ACAC (Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference) Coach of the Year award in 2010 and a league championship in 2011, before overseeing the program's transition to Canada West and U SPORTS prior to the 2012-13 season.
After his tenure at Mount Royal in Calgary ended, Laforest spent the next five years in Ontario.
That's when the opportunity to coach Trinity Western's women's hockey program came up.
"It was an opportunity to combine my passion for hockey while also working within an institution where faith is a cornerstone on a daily basis," he says. "It was too good an opportunity to pass up."
After a number of interviews and critical discussions with his blended family of nine, LaForest and his wife, Wendy, made a family-based decision to move to Langley and take the position at TWU.
"The way I saw it, we had 90 days to build a team."
The prospect of what he called a "blank canvas opportunity" excited Laforest beyond measure. While he had coached countless teams at various levels, the opportunity to build the women's hockey program from the ground up at Trinity Western was like none other before.
Arriving in September and with recruiting in women's hockey typically completed by January for the following season, Laforest needed to build an entire roster in short order. His first task was to establish a team culture with a vision of fulfilling the Spartans holistic Complete Champion Approach™, and then assemble that team in a three-month span in time for the 2020-21 season.
"There wasn't an open weekend at all during the fall of 2019, from mid-September to mid-December," Laforest says. "I scoured Canada trying to find an exact profile player, from both a personal and athletic perspective that fit our template.
"We were able to find some really, really great people."
In taking what he describes as "planes, trains, and a whole lot of automobiles," Laforest ventured throughout the country to establish a team of 20 players.
Despite the long drives, cancelled flights and sleepless nights, Laforest cherished the process of recruiting an entire team.
"As crazy as it was, it was a great experience and I would do it all again," he says. "I would have never otherwise gone to some of the places I had been."
For Spartans forward Kiki Richardson, who captained the TWU team in 2019-20 as they played their final year in the South Coast Women's Hockey League, Laforest's efforts have been truly remarkable.
"For him to recruit that many players in that span is amazing," Richardson says. "He's locked down some great players by being completely honest with what kind of culture we want to build and the challenges we will face next season as a new team."
Richardson believes one of the attributes that makes Laforest successful is his ability to be personable with his players. "He's let me cry in front of him for reasons unrelated to hockey. He shows that he truly cares for his players, and that while hockey is important, when it really comes down to it he cares about us as human beings even more."
Hofer agrees with this sentiment. "Jean has a tremendously caring spirit for the people he works with, and he's a great reminder that we are people first and our jobs come second. I firmly believe that being at TWU is a calling, and that Jean was called here."
While Laforest has been in coaching positions before, his mindset since coming to TWU is completely different.
"Sometimes as coaches we think we're in control when we're really not," Laforest says. "For the first time ever, I am completely letting go of this job and letting God take control."
While his experience in coaching is one that is far-reaching, Laforest understands his résumé pales in comparison to the ultimate coach.
"God is the architect, and while the process has been difficult, I know I can trust Him."
While a great deal of uncertainty surrounds the debut of Trinity Western's women's hockey program, Laforest can find solace in the fact God is in control, as that's what brought him here in the first place – beginning with a simple phone call.
"This whole process has been extremely uplifting," Laforest says. "In a time where there's so much uncertainty, including a new program, a new campus, and a new city, I feel so good knowing it's in God's hands."
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Jean Laforest's story is the fourth piece of an extensive 14-part series, detailing the people and the stories that make up TWU Spartan Athletics.
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