Steph Barrie named OUA and U SPORTS Coach of the Year for Men’s Basketball
Head Coach Steph Barrie was awarded the Stuart W. Aberdeen Award as Fox 40 Coach of the Year after leading Men’s Basketball to a 17-5 record, their best regular season in over 50 years. He was also awarded OUA Coach of the Year.
“This award, more than any other one, is about the accumulative effort of the team […] this has been a team effort and it goes down from everyone, administration, the staff at Queen’s, my assistants, the support staff, and most importantly, it’s about the players,” Barrie said in a press release.
Barrie is the first ever Queen’s Men’s Basketball head coach to earn this honour, and it’s well deserved. After leading the team to, at the time, their most successful season last year, the Gaels made a repeat appearance at nationals this year where they finished sixth.
“The players have been the ones that have done the work and the heavy lifting and gotten this program to a place where these kinds of accolades are possible,” Barrie said.
“I would be remiss to not be very thankful to the players—both past and present—to put us in a position where we’re a program that is at nationals for two years in a row, and in a position to be successful.”
Women’s Basketball Head Coach Claire Meadows awarded OUA Coach of the Year after historic season
Under the leadership of Head Coach Claire Meadows, the Women’s Basketball team played its way to their best regular season record ever at 21-1, and most successful national championship run. For her excellence and results this season, Meadows was awarded OUA coach of the year.
The Gaels topped the OUA ranking and entered the playoffs as the number one seed. After winning a silver medal at the provincial level, they headed to nationals where they were seeded third and collected another silver finish.
This is just Meadows’ second year with Women’s Basketball coaching staff, but she played for Queen’s while completing her Bachelor of Physical Education and Bachelor of Education degrees. She finished her five years here as the Gaels second all-time leading scorer.
With two U SPORTS medals in her first two years with the program, it will be exciting to watch what other accomplishments Meadows will bring as time goes on.
Baseball brings home a banner and Coach of the Year Award
Head Coach Jeff Melrose led Baseball through one of the most thrilling playoffs runs any Queen’s team has seen this year. His Coach of the Year Award recognizes the way he coached his team with poise and confidence through a gritty 1-0 game against Guelph in the semifinals, and a 13-11 comeback victory over U of T in the finals.
“I would say he’s probably the best coach I’ve ever had, and obviously playing baseball my whole life I’ve had a bunch of coaches,” starting pitcher Jordan Leishman told The Journal.
Even in the tough mental moments, Melrose never lost faith in his players.
One of Leishman’s favourite memories from the season was during the OUA semifinals game against Guelph. The Gaels were up one with two innings left, but Leishman—about to pitch through the hitters for a third time—started wondering if he could last the rest of the game.
While Leishman worried, Melrose had confidence. Even in the bottom of the ninth with two Gryphons on bases and only one out, he left him out there to finish the job.
“That’s a perfect example of him showing confidence in me,” Leishman said. “Him believing in me was definitely one of the most memorable moments.”
Though confident, Melrose is also humble. In an interview with The Journal, he quickly mentioned the award shouldn’t just belong to him.
“I have to give a pretty big shout out to all of the other people that I coach with,” Melrose said.
“I do think that we have the best overall coaching staff, because I have a lot of respect for all five of those assistant coaches. And we all really, really enjoy what we do.”
Overall, Melrose is proud of what they’ve accomplished this year and is even more excited about the individual success of his players.
“It makes me happy and proud to see kids who are between 18 and 22 years old, learning some leadership skills and having a chance to apply them, and getting along well together and pushing each other a little bit in positive ways and learning,” he said.
Women’s Soccer OUA East division named Dave McDowell Coach of the Year
Despite an OUA semifinals upset loss to York after double overtime to cut their season short, Women’s Soccer had an incredible season under the guidance of Head Coach Dave McDowell, who was named OUA East Division Coach of the Year.
It’s McDowell’s eighth Coach of the Year award in his 35 seasons with Queen’s. His leadership this season took the Gaels to an undefeated regular season—their fourth ever.
“I’ve never met someone who is so excited for every game and so passionate, and you like felt that passion when you were playing,” Captain Cecilia Way said in an interview with The Journal.
“He loves everything that comes to soccer, whether that’s playing it, watching it, coaching it, everything.”
Graduating this year, Way only has incredible—and humorous—things to say about her years with McDowell.
“Dave does so well at confiding in players and asking their opinion and seeing what works for them. When it comes to training, recovery, playing, he wants to know everybody’s perspective.”
He also teaches them the most critical elements of soccer.
When Way joined the team, she was just learning to play forward and looked to McDowell for support. Most importantly, however, she says he taught her how to avoid falling over when running on the pitch.
“On the more comedic end, […] he taught me how to not fall,” she said.
“In my first year, I honestly fell probably every five minutes in a game. He taught me how to stay on my feet, which has been really valuable.”
Jokes aside, Way knows the secret to his continued success is passion.
“I think Dave knows Queen’s better than honestly anybody. I think he’s been consistently successful because he just truly loves the sport with his entire heart.”
Wrestling Head Coach Gianni Vecchio awarded U SPORTS R. W. Pugh Fair Play Award
After a great season with a medal at the OUA championship and an appearance at nationals, Wrestling Head Coach Gianni Vecchio was awarded the U SPORTS R. W Pugh Fair Play Award.
This award recognizes the coach or athlete with the best standards of sportsmanship throughout the tournament, but to Queen’s OUA bronze-medalist Marthe Laplante-Brady, the award also speaks to his approach to coaching the team.
“It’s huge to be recognized nationally, especially in a sport like wrestling because there’s so many coaches,” Laplante-Brady said.
“I think Gianni has a different approach to coaching for sure. It’s very, very athlete centred […] and it’s way different than any coaching I’ve ever had before.”
To Laplante-Brady, a great coach like Vecchio makes all the difference.
“There’s a lot of coaching and wrestling because he’s literally in your corner. I think that goes a little bit metaphorically, too. He’s not just like, in my corner physically, but he supports me every day,” she said.
“He doesn’t put any pressure on winning. He just like wants us to perform well. And he really just does what’s best for me as an athlete.”
Vecchio told The Journal he always hopes to maintain this athlete-first approach.
“It’s really fulfilling to see an athlete who was hardly winning the match or not winning a match and then by the end of their career actually doing very well and a contender for medals,” he said.
“That’s one of my most fulfilling things for me: seeing athletes go through the progress in the sport.”
Tags
Claire Meadows, Dave McDowell, Gianni Vecchio, Jeff Melrose, steph barrie
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