Team Safety Person
Creating a safe and positive hockey environment is a shared responsibility. The Team Safety Person plays an important role in supporting participant safety by helping identify and manage risks, coordinating injury response and return-to-play procedures, and promoting safe practices within the team.
Hockey Alberta provides resources and guidance to help Team Safety Persons understand their responsibilities and support a safe hockey experience for all participants.
- Roles & Responsibilities
- Hockey Canada Safety Program
- Safety Requires Teamwork
- Emergency Action Plan
- Team Safety Binder
- Preparation
- Injury Management
The Team Safety Person plays an important role in supporting participant safety and should be a designated, registered member of the team’s official staff whenever possible. This helps ensure safety responsibilities are clearly assigned, supported, and integrated into the team’s operations.
Working alongside coaches and other team officials, the Team Safety Person helps prevent injuries, coordinates injury response and return-to-play procedures, and promotes safe practices. They also serve as a key safety contact for players and parents, helping ensure the team is prepared to respond appropriately when safety concerns or injuries arise.
Key Responsibilities
Risk Management & Injury Prevention
- Identify potential safety risks during team activities and work with team officials to address them.
- Support appropriate supervision and safe practices during practices, games, and other team activities.
- Encourage proper equipment fit, maintenance, and safe use.
- Promote injury prevention practices, including appropriate warm-ups, cool-downs, hydration, and conditioning.
Injury Management & Emergency Preparedness
- Develop, review, and practice the team’s Emergency Action Plan (EAP) with coaches and other team officials.
- Ensure a fully stocked first aid kit is available at all team activities.
- Collect and securely maintain required medical information for players and team officials, ensuring it is accessible when needed.
- Recognize injuries or symptoms that require a participant to be removed from activity and referred for medical assessment.
- Coordinate the team’s response to injuries and emergencies, including activating the EAP when necessary.
- Complete required Hockey Canada Injury Report Forms and submit documentation through the appropriate association and Hockey Alberta processes.
- Support and document applicable return-to-play procedures, including required medical clearance, before a participant resumes activities.
- Maintain injury records and communicate relevant information to the association in accordance with established procedures.
- Provide support as the Team Safety Person for the opposing team when their designated Safety Person is unavailable.
- Assist with injury response for on-ice officials, applying the same injury management and emergency response procedures used for players.
Safety Leadership & Communication
- Promote a positive, respectful, and safety-focused team environment.
- Share safety information and expectations with players, parents, coaches, and team officials.
- Encourage healthy habits, including nutrition, hydration, hygiene, and injury prevention.
- Support communication between families, team officials, and medical professionals when managing injuries and return-to-play requirements.
- Promote Fair Play and help reinforce the importance of participant well-being.
Qualifications & Training
Ideally, a Team Safety Person will have experience or a background in healthcare, athletic therapy, safety, or a related field. While this experience is beneficial, it is not required. The most important qualities include:
- Strong communication and organizational skills.
- An interest in participant safety and injury prevention.
- The ability to remain calm and respond appropriately in challenging situations.
- A willingness to work collaboratively with coaches, families, and other team officials.
Required Training & Certification:
The Team Safety Person should be a designated, registered team official whenever possible. This is Hockey Alberta’s preferred approach to ensure the individual is formally connected to the team and understands their responsibilities.
- Hockey Canada Safety Level 1 certification (Hockey Canada Safety Program) is required for all Team Safety Persons.
- All applicable Hockey Alberta screening requirements must be met, along with any additional association requirements.
A starting point for any Team Safety Person, the Hockey Canada Safety Course is an online program designed to provide all the information required to fulfill your role as a Team Safety Person.
Hockey Canada has created an informational guide to help the local minor hockey association, its teams, and its volunteers implement a safe environment for all of our participant. This guide covers topics such as participant protection, risk management, the Hockey Canada Insurance Program, and equipment fitting.
Being prepared to respond to an injury or emergency is an important part of participant safety. When a serious injury occurs, a timely and coordinated response can make a significant difference in the outcome.
An Emergency Action Plan (EAP) outlines the steps to follow during an emergency, including the roles and responsibilities of those involved. Every team should have an established EAP that is reviewed and practiced to ensure team officials understand how to respond effectively.
Team Safety Persons are encouraged to complete additional First Aid training beyond the required Hockey Canada Safety Level 1 certification. Having individuals with First Aid or medical training available during team activities can provide valuable support when responding to injuries or emergencies.
EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN ORGANIZATION FORM >
EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN INFORMATION WALLET CARDS >
EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN - VIDEO >
Roles & Responsibilities Within the Emergency Action Plan
The following outlines the key roles and responsibilities involved in carrying out a team’s Emergency Action Plan (EAP). These roles should be assigned and reviewed before the season begins so everyone understands their responsibilities in an emergency.
1. Person in Charge
The Person in Charge is typically the Team Safety Person or the individual with the most appropriate first aid or medical training available.
Responsibilities include:
- Taking control of the injury response and assessing the situation within their level of training.
- Determining whether emergency medical assistance is required. When a serious injury is suspected or there is uncertainty, activate emergency medical services.
- Directing the Call Person to contact emergency services and providing relevant details about the injury.
- Coordinating the response and avoiding unnecessary movement of the injured participant, particularly when a head, neck, or spinal injury is suspected.
- Recording relevant details, including when the injury occurred, when emergency services were contacted, and when assistance arrived.
- Transferring care to emergency medical personnel when they arrive.
2. Call Person
The Call Person is responsible for contacting emergency services when required. Ideally, this individual regularly attends team activities and is not responsible for supervising the bench.
The Call Person should know the arena’s address, emergency access points, and how to contact emergency services.
When calling for emergency assistance:
- Speak clearly and calmly.
- State that there is a medical emergency.
- Provide the arena name, address, and exact location of the injured participant.
- Describe the nature of the emergency and provide information requested by the dispatcher.
- Provide a callback number.
- Explain the best access route for emergency responders.
- Follow the dispatcher’s instructions and remain on the line until directed to disconnect.
- Confirm with the Person in Charge that emergency services have been contacted and relay any relevant instructions or arrival information.
3. Control Person
The Control Person helps manage the surrounding environment so the injury response can take place safely and without unnecessary interference.
Responsibilities include:
- Keeping other participants, spectators, and unnecessary personnel clear of the injured participant.
- Coordinating with arena staff, opposing teams, and officials as needed.
- Ensuring emergency access routes are clear and directing emergency responders to the injured participant.
- Arranging an appropriate private space if requested by medical personnel.
- Helping identify additional qualified medical personnel in the facility if assistance is needed.
4. Coaching Staff
Coaches and team managers play an important supporting role during an emergency. Whenever possible, the Call Person and Control Person should be individuals who are not responsible for supervising players.
At the beginning of the season, the coaching staff and Team Safety Person should confirm that the necessary individuals have been assigned to the EAP.
During an emergency:
- Head Coach: Maintains supervision of the remaining players, keeping them at the bench or moving them to the dressing room when directed by game officials.
- Assistant Coaches: Support player supervision and assist the Head Coach as needed.
- Team Manager: Assists with communication, accessing relevant medical information, contacting parents or guardians, and supporting the Control Person as required.
If a coach is also serving as the Team Safety Person, another designated team official must be prepared to take over player supervision while the coach attends to the injured participant.
5. On-Ice Officials
On-ice officials remain responsible for managing the game environment, while the Team Safety Person or Person in Charge coordinates the injury response.
When a player is injured on the ice, officials should:
- Stop play in accordance with the playing rules and the seriousness of the situation.
- Signal the Team Safety Person onto the ice once play has stopped, providing assistance where appropriate.
- Direct both teams to their benches and maintain control of the playing environment.
- Allow appropriately qualified individuals onto the ice to assist when requested by the Person in Charge.
- Support safe access for emergency personnel and assist with clearing the ice surface when necessary.
- Direct teams to their dressing rooms when appropriate, particularly if emergency medical services are responding.
- Coordinate with the Team Safety Person regarding the safe removal of the injured player.
- Allow parents or guardians to provide appropriate support when circumstances permit, particularly for younger participants.
- Follow the direction of emergency medical personnel once they assume responsibility for the injured participant.
Officials with first aid or medical training may offer assistance to the Team Safety Person when appropriate, while maintaining their responsibilities for the game environment.
Section 1: About the Team Safety Person
Information on the role, responsibilities, and expectations of the Team Safety Person.
Safety Person Responsibilities
Section 2: Checklists
The following checklists provide a guide to help the Team Safety Person fulfill his or her role throughout the season.
Section 3: Player Information
Ensure each participant has completed the following required form(s) prior to the start of the season. The player medical form is in fillable PDF form, which can be emailed to each player’s parent(s)/guardian(s) or the form can be printed and filled out at your preseason team meeting.
Player Medical Information Form
Section 4: Emergency Action Plan
Resources to help build your Emergency Action Plan. It is a requirement for a team to have established an emergency action plan that should be practiced prior to the season beginning.
Section 5: Injury Management
The following are resources to help manage an injury when it occurs. As a safety person you should familiarize yourself with the Injury Assessment Flow Chart, Player Removal Guide, and the Injured Official Document prior to the season beginning. As a team safety person for the home team, should an official be injured it is incumbent on you to lead the management of the situation while the visiting team’s safety person provides support.
Section 6: Post Injury Management
The following are post injury reporting requirements and resources to help support a proper return to play. For each injury ensure a Hockey Canada Injury Report Form is completed, a Return to Play Form has been completed, and the injury is logged under the Injury Log Form (which is in the fillable PDF form). If the injury is a concussion, it is a requirement that the return to play process is followed and documented.
Hockey Canada Insurance Overview
Hockey Canada Injury Report Form
A successful safety program starts with preparation including working with your team to build its emergency action plan, collecting the necessary medical and contact information for all participants, and holding a preseason meeting with parents to set the team’s safety related expectations. When collecting personal information ensure that you are only collecting the information necessary for its intended purpose, securely stored, and when it is not needed anymore disposed in an appropriate manner.
Hockey Alberta’s Stacey Pattison discusses the importance of preseason planning. Key considerations include tryout procedures, selecting safety staff, and resources available.
Hockey Alberta’s Stacey Pattison discusses safety related topics to be included in your preseason coaches meetings including the importance of having all the staff being on the same page.
Hockey Alberta’s Stacey Pattison discusses safety related topics that can be included in your team’s preseason parents meeting such as setting expectations and what a return to play process would look like for your team.
Hockey is a game that requires a diverse set of skills and is played in a confined space. Even with all of our best attempts to ensure a safe environment sometimes injuries can happen. Two of the most important roles of a team safety person are recognizing and removing an injured player and facilitating the proper return to participation for that player.
Injury Assessment Flow Chart >
*Please submit injury reports via email.
Hockey Canada Return to Play Form >
Hockey Alberta’s Stacey Pattison discusses some brief points on how to manage a concussion from a team safety person’s perspective.
Hockey Alberta’s Allison Marriott discuses some key aspects of a return to play process including the importance of having a gradual return to the activity.
