Women’s Rugby just wrapped up their fifth straight season without a regular season loss. Before the advent of the 2024-25 OUA playoffs, Head Coach Dan Valley sat down with The Journal to reflect on what it takes to be a dominant force in the OUA, and how he’s preparing to defend the OUA title.
The team is on a historic run and going undefeated in the regular season is no small feat, let alone doing it for five straight seasons.
The Gaels have seen an unfathomable amount of success over the past half-decade. Valley attributes this to the entire coaching staff and the formulation of their team’s identity.
“We have a really great coaching staff who are committed to the student-athletes within this program,” Valley said in an interview with The Journal, later adding that “it all sort of started back in 2017, just a very committed group of women that bought into the approach that we brought to them as a coaching staff.”
While for us, as fans, it might be hard not to expect perfection from our Gaels, Valley sets his expectations on the work ethic of his athletes, crediting that real progress is made from Monday to Friday.
“The expectation is a day in, day out, show up, work hard, push each other. We talk a lot about Monday to Friday being the important days. It’s not about Saturday and going out and competing, it’s about getting ready to compete from Monday to Friday,” he said. “If we get those elements right, then we give ourselves a really good chance to go out on any given Saturday and be really annoying and really challenging to play against.”
While the numbers might suggest the Gaels have faced relatively little adversity this season, their game against their friendly rivals, the Guelph Gryphons, on Sept. 21 saw them overcome a 17-point first-half deficit, holding the Gryphons to zero points in the second half and defeating them 31-24.
Games like their comeback win against the Gryphons are truly special to be a part of, and serve as an excellent marker for evaluating their performance against the province’s top talent, Valley said.
“If the road isn’t challenging, then I don’t think you’re learning the lessons that you need to be ready for whatever the next challenge is going to be.”
The Gaels had a nearly flawless season, which might pose some challenges in terms of remaining critical of the team and what work needs to be done to defend their provincial title and make a serious run at U SPORTS gold.
For Valley, improvement comes from a proactive place instead of a reactive one.
“We’re always looking at where we need to get to be successful in the post-season and making sure we have the tools in the toolbox that we’re going to need when we get into those high-pressure situations,” he said. “From a planning and building perspective, that’s our approach from day one of training camp. It’s looking to the end of the season for the business and being intentional about how we are building our style of play.”
Valley summarizes his coaching philosophy with a quote he says he stole from a music artist, also admitting that his team gives him a bit of heat every time he uses it.
“The players make fun of me when I say this, and I think I stole this from a country music artist, but the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason.”
Overall, the Gaels are in a strong position to make a deep provincial and national playoff push. “We are who we are now, and our job from now on is to tighten the screws and make slight adjustments. The big rocks are in place,” Valley said.
The Gaels semifinal game is set for Oct. 19 at Nixon Field. Be sure to come out and support the Gaels as they look to get one step closer to reclaiming their provincial championship.
Tags
Dan Valley, Gaels, OUA playoffs, Women's rugby
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