09/04/2026
Three Generations, One Game
From Surrey Female Hockey to Team Canada and Back Again
CHILLIWACK, B.C. — Three women. Three generations of female hockey. Three remarkably different journeys through a game that has changed dramatically during their lifetimes.
Yet for Christine Gardiner, Debbie Beaudoin and Jennifer “Jenn” Gardiner, many of those journeys can be traced back to the same place: Surrey female hockey.
Their paths have included Senior AAA women's hockey, BC Hockey development programs, Canada Winter Games, Team Canada opportunities, NCAA Division I hockey, national championships, elite and professional women's leagues, coaching and decades of volunteer service.
Recently, those paths crossed again at the Warriors Ice Sports Training Society Women's Hockey Weekend in Chilliwack.
They weren't together for an elite championship or national-team selection camp.
They were there to give back — helping adult women of different ages and abilities continue to learn, compete and find their own place in hockey.
For Beaudoin, President of the non-profit Warriors Ice Sports Training Society, having Christine and Jenn at the weekend was particularly meaningful.
It was a reminder of where they came from, how much female hockey has changed, and how one generation can help create opportunities for the next.
Christine Gardiner: Helping Build the Road
Christine Gardiner belongs to a generation of female players who competed long before today's established pathway for girls and women existed.
Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, Gardiner played Senior AAA women's hockey with the Surrey Flyers, part of a strong era of women's hockey in the Lower Mainland.
She also remembers participating in the selection process during the earliest days of Canada's women's national hockey program — when representing Canada in women's hockey was an opportunity that was only beginning to take shape.
But Gardiner's impact on the game extended far beyond playing.
She became a coach, mentor and volunteer within Surrey female hockey and the developing provincial women's game. Gardiner recalls coaching B.C.'s female team at the 1991 Canada Winter Games, and her coaching experience also included competition at the Western Canadian Shield.
Her contributions were recognized provincially.
In 1988–89, Gardiner, representing Surrey, received the Fred Heslop Minor Hockey Week Award, recognizing outstanding volunteer service to hockey.
Nearly a decade later, in 1996–97, she received another significant honour when she was named BC Hockey Coach of the Year, receiving the Ernie Gare Memorial Trophy.
Among the young Surrey players Gardiner coached during those years was a teenager named Debbie Beaudoin.
Christine coached Debbie when she was approximately 14 to 16 years old.
For a brief period in the early 1990s, their paths even crossed as players when Beaudoin dressed for several Senior AAA games with Christine and the Surrey Flyers.
Neither could have imagined where hockey would eventually take them — or that more than three decades later they would still be sharing a rink.
Debbie Beaudoin: Player Becomes Coach
Beaudoin's generation came along as more opportunities were slowly opening for female athletes.
She progressed through B.C.'s high-performance system, including provincial development programs such as BC Best Ever and the Program of Excellence, and represented Zone 3 at the BC Winter Games.
In 1995, she participated in the Canada Winter Games as women's hockey was becoming established on the national multi-sport stage. She later attended a Team Canada regional selection camp in 1997. Her playing résumé also included Senior AAA hockey in the South Coast women's league.
Hockey eventually took Beaudoin beyond British Columbia.
She played NCAA Division I hockey in the United States, including at Quinnipiac University, where she served as captain in 2004.
Her senior women's career included the Vancouver Griffins, Durham Lightning and Quebec Avalanche in the former National Women's Hockey League, followed by the BC Breakers of the Western Women's Hockey League.
In 2016, more than two decades after those early Surrey days, Beaudoin was selected by the Calgary Inferno in the Canadian Women's Hockey League draft.
But, like Christine before her, playing became only part of her contribution to hockey.
Beaudoin returned to coaching, including with Surrey Female Hockey and the Fraser Valley Phantom Female Major Midget program, and worked within BC Hockey development programming.
Eventually, that commitment led to Warriors Ice Sports Training Society, a non-profit organization providing skating, hockey and ringette development for participants ranging from young beginners to adults.
And Beaudoin hasn't stopped playing.
She continues to compete in the South Coast women's game with the Surrey Wildcats at the Senior AA level.
That longevity has created an unusual reversal.
The teenager who once stood on the ice listening to Christine Gardiner is now preparing to stand behind Christine's bench.
Debbie is now Christine's coach as Christine continues playing and competes at the 55+ BC Games.
Coach became player.
Player became coach.
And the game connected them again.
Jenn Gardiner: A New Generation of Possibilities
Then came another Surrey player: Jennifer Gardiner.
Jenn's journey shows just how much the female hockey pathway had grown.
She came through Cloverdale Minor Hockey before transitioning to Surrey Female Hockey. From Surrey, she advanced to the Greater Vancouver Comets in B.C.'s Female U18 AAA program.
She became part of three provincial championship teams with the Comets and established herself as one of the province's leading young players.
Then came an opportunity that Christine and Debbie's generations had pursued themselves:
Team Canada.
Jenn represented Canada at the U18 level and won gold at the 2019 IIHF U18 Women's World Championship.
Her next stop was The Ohio State University, where another chapter unfolded.
Gardiner developed into a standout NCAA player, helping Ohio State become a national powerhouse and winning NCAA national championships. She captained the Buckeyes during their 2024 championship season.
From there, the Surrey player's journey continued into professional women's hockey and Canada's senior national-team program.
BC Hockey has recognized the significance of that progression, identifying Gardiner as the first player to advance through what is now B.C.'s Female U18 AAA pathway to Canada's Women's World Championship team.
From Surrey Female to the Comets, Ohio State, professional hockey and the Maple Leaf, Jenn represents opportunities that earlier generations of female players fought to create.
Different Eras, Remarkable Similarities
The details of their careers are different, but the parallels are difficult to miss.
Christine pursued an opportunity during the earliest days of Canada's women's national-team program.
Years later, Debbie attended a Team Canada regional selection camp.
A generation after that, Jenn made Team Canada.
Christine played Senior AAA women's hockey when opportunities for female players were limited.
Debbie followed through Senior AAA, NCAA Division I, the NWHL and WWHL and was later drafted into the CWHL.
Jenn followed a more established development route from female U18 AAA to NCAA hockey, Canada's national program and professional women's hockey.
All three were influenced by the provincial and national development systems that grew around them.
And all three came through a Surrey female hockey community that helped give girls and women a place to compete.
But perhaps their greatest similarity isn't found on any hockey résumé.
All three continue to give back to the game.
Back to the Rink
That shared belief is what brought Christine, Debbie and Jenn together again in Chilliwack.
Warriors' Women's Hockey Weekend wasn't created only for elite players.
It brought together adult female athletes with different backgrounds, skill levels and hockey experiences. Some had played for years. Others were still developing their confidence and skills.
That made Christine and Jenn's willingness to participate particularly meaningful.
The collective experience on the ice included national-team programs, NCAA hockey, provincial championships, elite women's leagues and decades of coaching.
But during the weekend, those accomplishments weren't the point.
Helping another woman improve was.
Maybe it was improving an edge or stride.
Maybe it was learning a new skill.
Maybe it was encouraging someone who didn't grow up with the opportunities available to today's young female players.
Or maybe it was simply helping another woman discover that there is still a place for her in hockey.
Recognizing Those Who Created the Opportunities
None of these three journeys happened alone.
They were made possible by countless coaches, teammates, volunteers, families and organizations that continued creating opportunities for female athletes.
Surrey Female Hockey provided an important home for generations of girls and women.
BC Hockey, through its provincial championships, development programs and Program of Excellence, helped create pathways beyond local hockey.
Hockey Canada provided another level for athletes who dreamed of wearing the Maple Leaf.
University hockey opened still more doors. Quinnipiac University became an important chapter in Beaudoin's journey, while The Ohio State University became part of Gardiner's path to national and professional hockey.
The South Coast women's leagues and the women's leagues that followed gave generations of athletes somewhere to continue competing.
And behind every organization were people willing to volunteer, coach, organize, drive athletes to practices, open dressing-room doors and create opportunities that hadn't existed for the generation before.
The Circle Continues
Perhaps the story of Christine Gardiner, Debbie Beaudoin and Jenn Gardiner isn't really about how far any one of them travelled in hockey.
It is about what happened after they got there.
Christine became a coach and volunteer and helped young female players — including Debbie — find their own opportunities.
Debbie travelled her own hockey path and eventually became a coach and created a non-profit organization dedicated to helping others participate and develop.
Jenn travelled further along a pathway that had become increasingly established, eventually reaching Canada's national team — and then came back to a community rink to share what she had learned with other women.
And Christine?
Nearly four decades after BC Hockey first recognized her volunteer contribution, she is still lacing up her skates.
This time, one of the girls she once coached will be standing behind her bench.
For Warriors Ice Sports Training Society, having Christine and Jenn join Debbie for the Women's Hockey Weekend was therefore much more than having accomplished hockey people on the ice.
It was a chance to say thank you.
Thank you to Christine and Jenn for sharing their time, experience and love of the game.
Thank you to Surrey Female Hockey and the many community associations that created places for girls to play.
Thank you to BC Hockey and Hockey Canada for continuing to develop opportunities for female athletes and coaches.
Thank you to Quinnipiac, Ohio State and the university programs that gave Canadian women opportunities to combine education with high-level hockey.
And thank you to the countless coaches, teammates, volunteers and families whose names may never appear in a record book but whose contributions helped move the women's game forward.
The opportunities available to female hockey players today look very different from those Christine encountered in the 1980s.
That progress didn't happen overnight.
It happened one player, one coach, one volunteer and one opportunity at a time.
And perhaps that's the most important connection between three women from Surrey whose hockey journeys span generations:
Someone helped open the door for each of them.
And each, in her own way, has chosen to hold that door open for someone else.
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