Berg, Kathy

SHE FIRST WON THE ABBEY HOFFMAN CUP at the Canadian Nationals with the former Edmonton Chimos in 1984, one of the most successful women's ice hockey teams in Canadian history. In those years the Hoffman Cup was symbolic of national women’s hockey supremacy and many legends of the women’s game took part, from Geraldine Heaney to Hayley Wickenheiser. The Chimos won it again the next season, becoming the dominant women's team in Alberta, capturing all but one Alberta provincial championship from 1982 to 1997. They represented Alberta at the Canadian national championships 16 times in their history, winning the National title twice more (1992, 1997).

From 1997 to 2009, she was the Director of the Olympic Oval Female High Performance Hockey Program at the University of Calgary. In 1998 she coached the University's women's team, the Dinos, to bronze in the first ever CIAU Canada West University Female Hockey Tournament. That same year she was co-coach of Oval X-Treme with Sandy Johnson and Wally Kozak, winning the 1998 Alberta AAA Provincial Championship, and the National Championship. In 2000, when she was Head Coach of the Dinos, Assistant Coach of the Alberta Provincial Women's Team, and an undergraduate of the National Coaching Institute at the University, she was appointed Head Coach of the Australian National Women's Team (NWT). She coached Australia at the Pool B Qualification in Dunaujvaros & Szekesferhevar, Hungary and the Women's Worlds Division I Qualification in Maribor Slovenia in 2001. Back in Maribor in 2003, she led the Australian women to a IIHF Gold Medal at the Worlds and promotion to Division 2.

She coached Australia in 2004, the same year she was co-creator and acting president of the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL), along with Hayley Wickenheiser and Dee Bateman, owner of the Edmonton Chimos. "Between myself, Dee and Kathy Berg, that's where the idea started," said Wickenheiser at the time. "And without Dee and Kathy spearheading it, it wouldn't have happened." She became Executive Director of the Calgary Oval X-Treme, the team she coached, which was the crown jewel of the women's leagues for years and the single biggest supplier of talent to Canada's national team.

For seven years she was coach of Australia, from its first international qualifications in 2000 and 2001, through three Women's Worlds. Her term in the National Women’s Program saw the Selects Team created in 2004, the year Australia was first promoted to the Division II Women's Worlds, and the Showcase Series in 2005, which offered elite level female competition during the regular season of the Northern Hemisphere so that players competed in the Worlds in peak condition. In 2007, she was presented with a Special Commendation Award from Australia's national association. It was the year the AWIHL, Australia's first national women's league, was established.