1Excalibur Champions: Excalibur Women's Rugby assistant coach Sammy Nadeau excels as part of the U Sports Female Apprentice Coach Program
After being named to the U Sports Female Apprentice Coach Program for the 2020-21 season, Trent Excalibur women's rugby assistant coach Sammy Nadeau has had some time to reflect on her experience. She expected it to have additional on-field training and mentoring opportunities with the student-athletes, but through this program, she has gained even more. With her experience with the program, as well as being a former student-athlete herself, Nadeau has gained greater confidence in herself as a coach and knows with her experience she will continue being an influence on the next wave of student-athletes.
"Confidence is a big thing for me," began Sammy. "Through the U Sports Female Apprentice Coach program, it was just believing in myself and the knowledge I had and knowing how to apply that for the best student-athlete experience."
"Speaking with coaches and the student-athletes on the team— they instilled more confidence in me with them actually learning and picking up what I'm saying. I just needed the confidence to be able to portray that in a coaching setting."
Another part of her experience with the U Sports program was about gaining an enhanced perspective as a coach, in addition to her student-athlete experience. As a former rugby student-athlete with the St. Francis Xavier women's team, it was the "mental mindset that was definitely a huge change."
"I had to be more detailed and prepared as a coach, knowing what I wanted to teach the student-athletes, what my drills or little technical traits meant to them, how it contributed to our game shape, and how we run as a team," explained Sammy. "It was more of a mental preparation than it was a physical preparation."
A standout centre during her student-athlete career from 2016-2020, Sammy led the StFX women's rugby team to the Atlantic University Sport championship in 2019, while earning her Bachelor of Arts in Human Kinetics. It was during her human kinetics program where she was introduced to coaching and she was able to realize how important strong coaching is to the experience.
As she gained experience as a coach, Sammy saw that she was also able to use her technical expertise as a student-athlete to better communicate and give perspective as a coach to the current Excalibur student-athletes.
"Having a female coach and as someone that went through university as a student-athlete was super important to the women's team. I often get student-athletes that reach out to me as they juggle being a student-athlete and being a student at university. The other coaches may not have that same experience, or it's a little of a different timeline, whereas my experience is so fresh. That was really something new that I could add to the teamand was something that I loved."
To make her experience even more exciting was the opportunity to work with one of her former Team Ontario coaches, Pete Hercus. With the support of the 1Excalibur community and Pete in the Excalibur women's Head Coach role and the mentor coach as part of this program, Sammy believes it only made the U Sports Female Apprentice Coach Program experience better.
"Pete pushed me out of my comfort zone and I appreciate that more than anything," said Sammy. "He made me feel comfortable in my knowledge and put me in places where he knew I had strengths and then also coached me as a mentor in places where he knew I wasn't as strong."
"The Excalibur community has opened their arms up for me," said Sammy. "Every sport at Trent is kind of like a collective community, the Excalibur family is real! I'm so glad that I'm part of the Trent community, you don't really get what it means until you're a part of it. It's a great family to be with and I do feel like I have a second family and a whole support system, it's a beautiful atmosphere at Trent.
With U Sports extending the program into its third year, featuring even more opportunities for female coaches to develop and gain experience, it is opening the door for more females in sport.
"I can't wait to see what the future brings for this program because there is nothing but growth that this program has to offer for women in sport."
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