Hockey Coach Resume Example & Writing Guide

You’re ready to skate onto new ice as a hockey coach. That’s great! Before the whistle blows, you need a professional resume that helps you score an interview.

Within this guide and the accompanying hockey coach resume sample, you will find information on the following topics: 

• What does a hockey coach do?
• How to write a hockey coach resume (tips and tricks)
• The best format for a hockey coach resume
• Methods for getting the most out of each section of your resume (summary, work history, education, skills)
• Professional resume layout and design hints.

Resume.io’s builder tool field-tested resume templates and resume examples are a great stepping stone to landing a hockey coach position.

What does a hockey coach do?

Hockey coaches at all levels oversee every aspect of the team’s play and athletes’ performance. They are responsible for teaching the skills necessary to play the game, the rules and regulations of the game, and for ensuring the safety of the skaters. 

Before the season begins, hockey coaches develop and teach strategies for winning and choose the position each team member will play. They then create plays and offer guidance as athletes learn those plays and use their skills on the ice. Hockey coaches may work with any age group or skill level. They work individually with athletes to help them reach their personal bests and with teams to foster cooperation and play development.

Hockey coaches also hire and supervise assistant coaches. They may also be responsible for scheduling games, keeping statistics, and communicating with parents, schools, or other teams.

How to write a hockey coach resume

All sports operate within a structure so you should not be surprised that job application documents also use a structure. Before you begin compiling your hockey coach resume, you need to know what goes into it. Your resume should contain:

• The resume header
• The resume summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• The employment history section
• The resume skills section
• The education section

Choosing the best resume format for a hockey coach

Depending on the level of hockey you coach, you may have several different coaching jobs or just one. If your career follows a linear path, we recommend using reverse chronological order. That is because recruiters find it easiest and you definitely want to make life easy for them.

Creating a linear story of your career may be more difficult if you coach different sports in different seasons. In that case, consider a hybrid format that offers more leeway than a chronological resume. These alternative formats may also be useful if you are new to hockey coaching.

Resume summary example

The summary of your hockey coach resume is your opportunity to inject your coaching style and love of hockey into your resume. Because it is written as a paragraph, you can get more creative that you will be able to in other sections. Your cover letter complements your profile section, so you can add a bit of flair there as well.

While keeping it professional, use this space to highlight your biggest accomplishments in your sport, either as a player or coach. Have you been on the ice since you were a toddler? This is a great place to use that to illustrate your passion for hockey. Then, describe your coaching philosophy. Let recruiters know if you have been coaching in high school or for an NCAA college team. Finally, use strong action verbs to explain how you lead and your proudest achievement as a coach.

You have about 100 words to catch the eye of employers, so make them count.

Employment history sample

The employment history section of your hockey coach resume forms the bulk of your document if you are an experienced hockey coach. This is where you detail all your coaching experience and show how you’ve grown throughout your career. 

You may be an assistant coach looking for a head coach’s position, a player transitioning to coaching, or a part-time employee or volunteer. Hockey coaches typically work in schools or sports facilities. While you want to focus on the skills and work experience you have in hockey, also consider listing jobs that have transferable skills. Those include any in which you teach, strategize, organize, or lead, especially if they involve student-athletes.

As you write your job descriptions, remember to stay away from a simple listing of responsibilities. Instead, think about how you applied the skills necessary to coach to improve individual and team performance. Use numbers of wins and team or individual statistics if they bolster your successes. Then, describe those successes in your bullet points.

A successful hockey coach resume should effectively demonstrate a candidate’s expertise and ability to effectively coach athletes in hockey. Coaching requires patience, skill, and expertise in the game’s rules and regulations. But coaches also must be excellent teachers and big-picture thinkers. As you prepare your resume, use as much hockey terminology and job-specific information as possible, as this will convey your in-depth understanding of the sport. Be sure to highlight your coaching expertise, and your understanding and experience using powerful instructional and coaching tools to guide players as they improve their technique and performance efforts. 

Here are some responsibilities to get you thinking:

• Train hockey athletes and helps them to improve their technique and game
• Guide players with the utilization of effective coaching techniques aimed at maximizing game performance
• Assist players in nurturing existing competencies and mastering new ones
• Institute and lead practices and drills, helping players to achieve optimal fitness and conditioning
• Teach players about the rules, regulations, and specifics of the game of hockey
• Promote sportsmanship, create positive team communities, and help athletes to realize their full athletic potential
• Manage an NCAA team, while also leading recruitment and retainment efforts of talented athletes.

Remember to use powerful action verbs and Hockey terminology that showcases your knowledge of the sport.

See example content below.

Hockey coach resume education example

Many hockey coaching positions require a bachelor’s degree in a related field such as physical education or sports medicine. List your degrees in this section of your hockey coach resume. In addition, many jobs require certification from USA Hockey. That certificate includes safety training and age-level specific educational modules. 

You may also list any honors or distinctions, including those you earned as a player or coach. If you hold a degree higher than a bachelor’s degree, you may leave out your high school. 

See example content below.

CV skills example

Within the skills section of your hockey coach resume, you will list five to ten of the abilities you believe are most valuable to hiring managers. There is no need for you to list such basics as “knowledge of hockey.” Instead, try to include rare skills that are likely to distinguish you from other candidates. You have the opportunity to stand out quickly by choosing the skills and attributes recruiters seek.

Some of the characteristics, or soft skills, that make a great hockey coach are positivity, trustworthiness and trust of players, being a good role model, focus, deep knowledge of the sport, and assertiveness, according to Hockey Training. Consider incorporating these into your skills section or other areas of your resume.

See example content below.

Resume layout and design

Your resume offers the first visual impression of you, so make it look great!

A professional resume avoids fancy fonts and bright colors in favor of clean lines and legibility. In addition, you get the benefit of precise formatting. A resume with formatting errors is much more likely to end up in the trash than in the hands of an employer. And, ATS software may have trouble scanning those resumes.

Here are a few tips:

• Before sending your resume out, have a friend or colleague proofread it
• Vary line lengths to prevent large blocks of type that are difficult to read
• Always save your completed resume as a PDF file to save the formatting exactly the way you want it
• If you’re not a design expert, or don’t want to concern yourself with the details of formatting, consider using one of our expertly-designed and adaptable resume templates.

Key takeaways for a hockey coach resume

1. Hockey coaches need to be great teachers as well as sports experts, so your resume needs to show that balance
2. Use your profile section to explain your philosophy of coaching and highlight your greatest success on the ice
3. Present yourself professionally with a clean, easy-to-read layout
4. Take advantage of resume.io’s guidance and resume tools to secure your interview – and your next job.