Sarah Shantz-Smiley


Sarah Shantz-Smiley is a Canadian-born Icelandic ice hockey player and coach. She has been a member of the Iceland women's national ice hockey team since 2011, the same year she was named the Icelandic Women's Ice Hockey Player of the Year.

Playing career

Having played for the Windsor Lancers women's ice hockey program in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, Shantz-Smiley graduated in 2005. Following university, she competed with the now-defunct Montreal Axion in the original NWHL. During the 2005-06 NWHL season, Smiley appeared in 35 games, logging 4 goals and 4 assists for 8 points.
In 2006 she signed on to play in the Icelandic Women's Hockey League.
In 2008, Shantz-Smiley would play for a club team in Australia. Smiley has also played for the Iceland national women's team competing in Group B at the 2012 IIHF Women's World Championship Division II in Korea. During Iceland's first game of the event, Shantz-Smiley earned an assist on a goal scored by Birna Baldursdóttir.

Coaching career

In December 2006, Shantz-Smiley was hired as the head coach of the Icelandic women's national ice hockey team. In 2008 she became the first woman to be the head coach of a men's Ice Hockey team in Iceland when she was hired as the head coach of Skautafélag Akureyrar men's team. Shantz-Smiley also spent team coaching a youth team in the community of Akureyri in 2010.
In 2011, Iceland was ranked 29th in the world, and was the host country for the 2011 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships – Division IV. During that same year, Smiley worked with Deirdre Norman from the Women of Winter hockey organization in Toronto and helped launch a women’s division in the Iceland International Ice Hockey Tournament.

Personal

Smiley received an Icelandic citizenship in 2011.