On an unexpectedly rainy July morning, UBC Women's Hockey forward Cassidy Rhodes is taking part in a group training session on the field at Thunderbird Stadium. She and the rest of the contingent of student-athletes from a number of different UBC varsity teams are continuing to work hard in the middle of the offseason, focused on staying sharp ahead of next school year.
 
When the time comes to lace up her skates for the first game of the 2026-27 campaign, Rhodes certainly won't take that opportunity for granted. The Alberta native knows just how quickly things can change given her roller coaster ride at UBC – when a great first two seasons as a T-Bird (including a spot on the U SPORTS All-Rookie Team in 2022-23) was followed by a fully torn ACL that took her out of action for all of 2024-25.


 
"I had an absolute meltdown the day it happened," she recalls, when she collided awkwardly with a teammate during the team's first practice after training camp. "Nobody even knew I'd torn it – I just fell in the corner, it looked like nothing happened. But I just felt something go and I walked off praying that nothing was wrong, that I just tweaked it, that I was just being a baby about it. And then when [the tests] came back and it was so wrong, it was really, really heartbreaking.
 
"I had to sit out the whole year, which was really, really tough. It made me have to see myself in a different way – sports have always been a huge part of my life so it was discovering who I was without sport."
 
In an instant, everything in her day-to-day life had changed. Forget stepping on the ice, priorities first shifted to simply regaining the ability to take any steps at all post-surgery. As a kinesiology student and very well-read when it comes to the science and statistics on ACL injuries, Rhodes knew just how daunting the road ahead would be in terms of the physical rehab.
 
"There's a lot of challenges no matter what you do," remarks Joe McCullum, UBC Strength & Conditioning Head Coach, on the rehab process for a long-term injury. "And then you couple it with academic stress, being at a top institution. Most of our kids are quite intelligent and in high-level programs.
 
"So, you add that on to the stress of thinking like, 'I'm not playing right now. I really want to get back and be a part of my team'…that's pretty normal for any athlete, right? You feel like you're no longer part of the team, but you are. Your job is just a little different now."


 
Rhodes is open about the mental struggles she had during her year out of action, having been cut off from playing the sport she loves and worrying that she wouldn't be able to be the same level of athlete that she was previously.
 
Having a strong support network during a time like that is essential, and after her injury she was introduced to a group that helped provide some of that needed support: the UBC Recovering Athlete Peer-Support Program (RAP).
 
"It was something I was vaguely aware of, like you'd see the signs in the gym or around the rink," says Rhodes on the program. "But after my injury, one of my friends told me about it so I checked it out."
 

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With meetings inside War Memorial Gym on Wednesday evenings, the RAP sessions give athletes making their way back from injuries the chance to connect with others who in similar situations. Created and run by student-athletes and open to anyone who wants to come and take part, the program helps foster connections between people who are going through – or have previously gone through – the same type of experiences.
 
"I met some really, really great people there and it really put things into perspective," reflects Rhodes. "It was really nice to talk to people that even though they don't play my sport, they got it – they knew my feelings, they've been through my feelings. And it was just really good to connect with them.
 
"It's a hard thing to get athletes to want to talk sometimes. They want to kind of move past it and focus on getting better rather than talking about what's going on right now, which I really want to try and help fix in the future because with the ACL, for example, it's a long game. It's 12 months. It's hard to go 12 months just looking forward, looking forward, and never just acknowledging where you're at sometimes."


 
The RAP sessions feature athletes with all sorts of injuries and on all sorts of timelines. What's consistent, though, is that everyone is welcome to share whatever it is that's on their mind, and it's a group that will work together to try and ensure everyone remains positive, motivated and encouraged. That can be from the perspective of the physical rehab and how that process is going, but also can be for outside of sport and finding new joys to spend time on.
 
For Rhodes, she had such a positive experience in the RAP sessions while she was recovering from her injury, that after she returned to playing hockey in the 2025-26 season she remained a part of the program as a facilitator, helping organize and run sessions with people going through similar journeys to what she'd just gone through herself.


 
"We'd have our little wins, which were like, I did my squats without it hurting today," says Rhodes. "It's something that might seem so little, but with them, knowing that experience, it was a huge thing. We'd celebrate it…and it made it so much easier.
 
"So I just really wanted that experience for other people because it's tough. It's really tough. I like to think I'm a strong, tough individual, but it's still really hard…I want to help create a strong community within this unfortunate circumstance everyone's been put into, to make it better and have someone there to talk to no matter what."
 
For the coaches who work with the athletes to get them back to top form, they also see the value in a peer group like RAP in addition to the existing support from teammates and others within their specific sport.


 
"I think you need both," says Amanda Jones, UBC Strength & Conditioning Assistant Coach. "I think you need super supportive teammates who are there for you and cheering you on and helping you get back. But I think you also need rehab-mates, or whatever you want to call it, to connect on a deeper level. You might not even be doing the same workouts, especially in the weight room, you might be on different programs or different phases…but having that kind of bond or motivation or support from someone is nice to have."
 
While Rhodes and the other athletes in the large group training session work under McCullum at midfield, Jones leads a small group along the south end of the field. Designated as the "return to play" group, this session is for those who are in the middle of their injury recovery.
 
Malcolm Fraser is one of those taking part, relishing in the ability to plant his feet and cut as he runs through different drills. A native of Victoria who transferred to UBC in the fall of 2025, the T-Birds' Football defensive lineman suffered a torn ACL in the final game of the regular season.


 
"I think it was the last play of the third quarter, I was making a tackle and I just heard my knee pop," remembers Fraser. "It was a bit devastating, trying to get back up and not being able to get back up right away. I got the news that I'd torn my ACL, and I didn't really know how to feel… but I had a great surgeon, and a great team around me to get me back to where I am now after seven months."
 
Fraser's time spent working his way back towards full fitness has also been marked by new connections that he's been able to form within the Thunderbirds community, with Rhodes and others with similar stories.
 
"I've been connecting with other ACL-recovering athletes, people that have returned to play and people that are still returning to play, and it definitely is a good community to be part of. I feel like we're all friends now, we all talk and it's good to know that I'm not the only one going through it.
 
"Honestly, it's really nice meeting athletes from all sports. I feel like for myself personally, prior to this I'd only really connected with my football guys…but when you're put in that environment it's good to see other perspectives from other athletes, and you can learn a lot from them."


 
"Whenever possible, we try to connect athletes who do have similar rehab timelines," added Jones. "So, if we have two athletes from different teams that are going into a surgery next week, I'll say, hey, have you met so-and-so? You're going to be along a similar timeline, it'd be great if we could get you in at similar times to like work out together, especially in the summer when your team's not here."
 
In addition to those peer-to-peer connections, athletes in the return to play process work closely with Jones, McCullum and other members of their team. And that recovery pathway continues to show its success: Rhodes made her return to Canada West action in the fourth game of the 2025-26 season, and from there played in all but one game the rest of the year.
 
A couple years ago she worried she might not be able to return to the same level that she was at before. Now she feels that both her legs and her upper body are even stronger than they were before her injury.
 
"They're really, really good," says Rhodes about the T-Birds' Strength and Conditioning team. "They're going to hold you accountable. If you're not doing it right, they're going to fix it. They're going to fix it so that you're better than what you were before…they want you to be the best, and they 100% reciprocate the effort that you put into it, which is really nice to see because that's not always been the case in previous experiences…so it's something really, really special here, I think. They're 100% involved and invested into your journey. Your wins are their wins, and they treat it like that."


 
"She had a wonderful rehab," says McCullum, recalling Rhodes' time spent working her way back to last fall's return. "She worked her tail off on every aspect of it. She was super diligent, super communicative, doing all the things that we needed her to do.
 
"I'm really proud of Malcolm too," he adds. "He loves football, and he was having a great year, so it can become so catastrophic on the athlete. But he's done everything right. He's showed up to every session, he's been talking to everybody…so I'm excited for what's going to come for him as well."
 
For Fraser, discipline and consistency have been the most important factors. While he still has work ahead of him before he's ready to put his helmet on again, he's excited for whenever it is that day comes.
 
"I love football, I've loved it since I was eight years old," he says. "It's all I ever wanted to do. As soon as I'm ready to play at 100% I'll be on the field…I'm not rushing things but I'm on pace and I'm going to keep going."


 
For Rhodes, her experiences over the last couple years will be in front of mind as she begins a Master's program in Rehabilitation Sciences. She's had the goal of working in pro sports on the medical or support staff side for a long while, and going through a significant injury of her own has only made her even more keen to do so.
 
"I'm going to take a lot of what has happened in my own process and in the process of others into my Master's," she says. "I'm super excited and I know I've got a lot of resources to use, and I will definitely make use of them as I make it through. I'm really passionate about rehab and having gone through it myself now, it's given me a different perspective and made me that much more passionate about it.
 
"It's led to a bunch of different opportunities as well…I would never wish it upon anybody, but I don't view it in a terrible, negative way now that I've gone through it. It gave me a lot more than it took away."
 
While Thunderbird varsity squads across all sports continue to enjoy fantastic amounts of success on the field, the Recovering Athlete Peer-Support Program and other support systems in place are examples of the many off-the-field teams that contribute to wins for UBC student-athletes as well.