On some days, Meagan Carnegie is scoring goals for the Assiniboine Community College Cougars (ACHA D2) while on other days, she is officiating U Sports women’s hockey as she balances her time as an athlete/linesperson/student.

The 20-year-old Winnipegger is in her third season with the Cougars (she was named Captain this season) and although she is on the ice 3-4 times per week with her team and in the classroom five days a week (she is studying Business Administration), she still manages to find enough time to fulfil her duties as a high performance official.

“It’s lots of time management I feel like. I took a police studies course my first year because I’ve always wanted to be a first responder. Taking that course, we had to run 16 kilometres for a final. So having to run 5 and 10 kilometres every week along with playing hockey and we had fitness every morning too. We wore a uniform, it was really strict. So I feel like that course helped me transition a little bit more to that time management when it comes to being a college athlete, playing and officiating on the side too.” Carnegie said.

Carnegie often travels to the United States for games with the Cougars, so her availability to officiate games is limited during those instances but when she is at home in Brandon she often officiates 3-4 per games per week. Recently, in late November, Carnegie lined three games in one weekend, sandwiched between playing two games with the Cougars.

Growing up, hockey was all around Carnegie so it’s no surprise that she began officiating at a young age (12 years old). Her dad Ian has been a Hockey Manitoba official for many years while her mom Nicole (currently the vice president of female hockey for Hockey Winnipeg) has been involved with the South Winnipeg Hockey Association since Megan started playing hockey at six years old. Last but not least, Megan’s 18-year old brother Callum (currently a student at the University of Manitoba) has played hockey most of his life and is a high performance official as well.

“Just being around hockey and playing hockey myself, I would obviously see the officials on the ice and I was kind of interested in what it was all like so I decided to take a clinic and try it out and my dad actually decided to go back into reffing with me my first year to mentor me.” Meagan Carnegie said.

Over the years, Meagan Carnegie has worked games with her dad and brother, both individually and as a three-person crew, but recently there was a first in the Carnegie family as Callum officiated Meagan’s Assiniboine College Cougars game in Brandon in late November.

“It’s always super fun when I get to ref her or ref with her. Especially with her living in Brandon now, I don’t get to see her all the time. It’s something that we can bond with together. It’s really become a big part of our family’s identity because we are so involved with it. It was just special to be able to ref my sister because a lot of people don’t have that opportunity.” Callum Carnegie said.

Both Callum and Meagan took their Level 3 Advancement clinic this fall and are both on track to enter the high performance program next year. A big step in Megan Carnegie’s officiating career happened recently when she lined her first U Sports game in early October when the University of Manitoba Bisons hosted the University of Alberta Pandas.

“It was really intimidating,” Meagan Carnegie recalled. “I played with a lot of those girls growing up because they all played in the AAA league with me so going to officiate them I was obviously really nervous. But being in a crew with the girls that I kind of looked up to who used to officiate me made it less nerve wracking I think. I’m used to doing games with them and I look up to them so I know they are there to give me advice and stuff. I was just excited to start a new league. It’s the highest level of female hockey we have in Manitoba so I thought that was pretty cool.”

Carnegie credits the tight-knit female officiating community in Winnipeg and the guidance and advice she has received over the years from high performance officials such as Amy Martin, Ally Wareham and Camille Forbes in playing a key role in encouraging her to keep progressing from a Level 2 official to high performance.

“I want to be that person maybe for someone else, another young female starting out in officiating,” said Carnegie. “If I keep going, I can hopefully help get more female officials involved in the game because even though there’s a lot more female officials than they’re used to be, it’s definitely more of a male populated thing.”

Carnegie plans on applying to the Manitoba Emergency Services College (MESC) in Brandon in the near future as she aspires to be a firefighter. It is a two-year program and she hopes to be accepted for Fall 2025. She plans to continue officiating regularly while in school.

“I feel like next year when I’m not playing hockey, I’ll have more opportunity to do more games and maybe more leagues because I have more availability and I can do it more consistently and more often. They keep telling me I’m really young so don’t stress.” Carnegie said.