An Influencer in the Game of Hockey! It was great to have a good friend and a great hockey mind on this episode. Joe Birch has twice been recognized by the Hockey News as Top 100 People of Power and Influence. Joe played his way up from Jr B hockey to the OHL and used his school package to pursue his education at the University of Western. Following his time at Western, Joe stayed involved with local minor and Jr hockey, coaching the St Thomas Stars Jr B hockey club. Wanting to work full time in hockey Joe accepted a job at the OHL head office as Director of Player Recruitment and Education Services, his role was to educate families on the scholarship opportunity for players post OHL. Joe also spent a couple of years on the player agency side of hockey with Newport Sports Management and returned to the OHL head office before being named the Kitchener Rangers Chief Operating Officer and Governor. Joe has a ton of experience in hockey and shares some great insight into the evolution of the OHL scholarship packages, what the player agency life is like, how to chose wisely when looking for representation and much more. We also talk about coaching, some of the do’s and don’ts as a parent coach and what it’s like to oversee the operations of an OHL hockey club. Big thanks to Joe for sharing his hockey journey. We hope you enjoy the episode!