Lauren McEwen, current Assistant Coach of the Women’s Rugby team at Queen’s, has had extensive impact on the Queen’s Rugby program. She has a continued passion for the Rugby program and the players at Queen’s.
McEwen started her Queen’s rugby career back in the 2011-12 season as a centre. She played all the way through to the 2015-16 season, where she scored a career total of 219 points. McEwan held the all-time scoring record at Queen’s until just recently, when current Gael, Lizzie Gibson, broke the record.
Having grown several formative relationships through rugby, McEwan became a coach to help bring that same sense of family through her leadership. She was named assistant coach for the Gaels in 2016.
At women’s rugby games McEwen can be seen in close contact with the players, lining up directly behind the kicker to provide support and advice before and after the kick.
In a previous interview with The Journal, Gibson cited McEwen as having a profound impact on her success, stating she’s much more than just a coach.
“She’s always been there for me emotionally” Gibson said. “She’s an expert, she watches me from behind and knows exactly what went wrong in my kick, but she’s also my biggest hype-man.”
With significant influence on the team, McEwen continues to grow Queen’s Rugby, even now that she isn’t a student and has a job teaching high school in Kingston. This is representative of McEwen’s love for rugby and the Gaels program.
“Watching them struggle and overcome their struggles and helping them through that has just been so rewarding,” McEwan said.
McEwen continues to grow as both a coach and mentor to her Gaels.
“Goals that I set for myself [are] to change with the way that the athletes in front of me are changing,” she said. “Evolve to their changing ways and to not kind of be stuck in a rigid mindset.”
McEwen praised the rest of the coaching team standing beside her.
“I really love the coaching staff that I work with,” she said. “We all bring something that is unique and special to our coaching staff. We all genuinely truly have so much respect and care for each other.”
Tags
Lauren McEwan, Lizzie Gibson, Women's rugby
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