VICTORIA – It's safe to say that University of Victoria women's field hockey assistant coach Krista Thompson eats, sleeps, and breaths field hockey. Aside from her role with the Vikes, Thompson wears many coaching hats. One of those hats is acting as Field Hockey BC's regional head coach for Vancouver Island, which has her coaching Canada's next generation of up and comers this summer.

As a first stop, Thompson is headed to Pennsylvania, Philadelphia from May 9-15, with Canada's U18 NextGen women's team. The team consists of Canada's top up-and-coming talent, including six Vancouver Island-based athletes, all of whom have come through UVic's Rising Stars program. The group includes two of the Vikes top local recruits Julia Boraston of Mt. Doug Secondary and Maeve Connerton of Lambrick Park Secondary School.

The NextGen squad, who has never even practised together, will have an action-packed week playing a four-game test series against the USA U18 national field hockey team.

"The trip will be an opportunity to see the next tier of Canadian talent in action while gaining travel experience and international game exposure. It's also a chance to teach the attacking and defending principles within the framework and style of play that is set by our senior national program," said Thompson.

"For me, it's just another opportunity to coach internationally. This is an exciting age group as they are the young talent coming up in Canada and will be the future of our sport for the next Olympic cycles following Paris in 2024," continued Thompson.

Sport Canada defines 'Next Gen' as athletes who are 5-8 years away from an Olympic/World Cup podium. The Field Hockey Canada Women's NextGen national program is a collection of young athletes from across the country. The NextGen pathway also serves as the development pipeline for the senior Women's National Team.

Following the week in Philadelphia, Thompson will return to Victoria to continue coaching the Rising Stars program, the local NextGen athletes and the U18 BC 'A' team.

As part of her role with Field Hockey BC, Thompson will coach the best of BC's under 18s at this year's U18 National Championships in Surrey, BC, from July 29-August 3, 2022. The following week Thompson will likely return to Surrey with her Vikes coaching hat on to check out the U16 National Championships and scope out potential future Vikes.

Thompson has a busy summer ahead but continues to have her sights set on helping Vikes head coach Lynn Beecroft bring home another national championship title. BC will host this year's national championship bid, which gets determined by U SPORTS later this year.