In the photo: Heidi Ferber, a hockey coach who pleaded guilty to sexual interference of a person under 16 and sexual exploitation. The 39-year-old will be sentenced on April 2.
There were early winter mornings after the season three years ago when Chanelle Petrie wondered whether she could tape up her socks, snap on her helmet strap and take the first stride on the ice.
Petrie — who is so fanatical about the sport that she includes the word “hockey” in her email address — was 15 years old when she and a friend first saw Heidi Ferber on skates.
The big, skilled Ferber competed in North America and Europe, eventually giving up the game after too many concussions. While her playing days were over, the 39-year-old dazzled as a coach.
Petrie, a five-foot, six-inch winger, wanted to skate as far as her talent would take her and saw Ferber as the coach who could take her there.
By the time the midget Kamloops Hellcats took to the ice in September 2010, Ferber signed on as assistant, beside head coach Alex Petrie, Chanelle’s father.
Chanelle Petrie on why she sought to have a publication ban lifted, allowing media outlets to use her name in the story of a hockey coach who preyed on her sexually: “It was the fact I wanted to see if there were others out there. I wanted to be a positive role model.”
The player and assistant coach struck up a friendship, Ferber becoming a mentor both on and off the ice.
Within two months, Ferber began sexually preying on the 15-year-old during hockey road trips and secret encounters carefully hidden from Petrie’s parents.
On April 2, Ferber will learn how long she will spend in prison when she is sentenced. She has has pleaded guilty to sexual interference of a person under 16 and sexual exploitation.
In B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops on Friday, Feb. 28, Justice Hope Hyslop removed a publication ban on information that would lead to identification of Petrie. Such a ban precluded publishing Ferber’s name.
Kamloops This Week successfully applied to lift the ban based on Petrie’s desire to have her name made public. Following the application, the Crown recanted its earlier opposition to Petrie being identified.
Petrie told KTW she decided early this year she no longer wanted the shield of the mandatory publication ban that protects identify of any youth or victim of sexual assault.
“It was the fact I wanted to see if there were others out there,” Petrie said. “I wanted to be a positive role model.”
Petrie just completed her season playing for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trojans in Calgary.
However, she said there were many times she wondered whether she would continue playing the sport she fell in love with in Grade 3
“It was an everyday battle. It came with a lot of anger on the ice. It changes you as a player. I was always positive and liked to motivate people. I started to get angry on the ice. I had to look at the root of the problem — it was this,” Petrie said.
Earlier this month in court, Crown prosecutor Don Mann outlined circumstances of what started as friendship and swiftly changed due to Ferber’s aggressive sexual demands.
The Crown wants Ferber jailed for between nine and 12 months, arguing Ferber breached a trust and victimized a confused teenager.
The defence has asked for a sentence of between 90 days and six months in jail, served on weekends.
Defence lawyer Michelle Stanford characterized Ferber as an emotionally unstable and previously closeted gay woman who suffered from concussions and epilepsy that clouded her judgement.
A pre-sentence report found Ferber has little remorse and blames Petrie.
During the preliminary hearing, Ferber wrote the word “liar” on a cup and displayed it to Petrie, who was testifying in court.
Mann said Petrie was confused about her sexuality at the time, something exploited by Ferber.
Ferber played competitive hockey for 25 years. Mann said Petrie looked up to her and was excited the veteran player believed in her.
The two discussed school, hockey and, eventually, sexuality. They began to socialize, but Ferber warned Petrie not to tell her parents about their budding relationship.
The pair kissed about a month-and-a-half after meeting. By November 2010, Ferber was making sexual advances on Petrie.
During the season and into mid-2011, the two had what Mann characterized as “countless sexual encounters.” Those included trysts on hockey road trips, when Petrie and her teammates would ask their parents to room with Ferber.
Mann said Petrie’s parents treated Ferber as “part of the family.”
The two stopped the relationship in July 2011, but remained acquainted and had one more sexual encounter in November 2011.
Petrie wrote a poem that contained suicidal references that year. Early in 2012, she reported the incidents to her mother and the two went to Kamloops RCMP.
The Crown has applied to add Ferber’s name to federal sexual-offender registry for 20 years.
Now 18 years old, Petrie said she talked extensively with her family before coming to a decision to ask Crown to lift the publication ban on her name.
“They were really supportive . . . They said to make it part of your healing process.”
Petrie is completing her semester at SAIT, where she is completing academic upgrading en route to taking social-work courses at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
She suffered a recent concussion and is unsure whether she will play hockey next season for Mount Royal.
“Sometimes it helps to play,” she said of her emotional healing. “It helps to take it out on the puck. Other days it’s harder.”
