Celebrating our Coaches - #NationalCoachesWeek

My mom, Rose Hill and my best friend’s dad, Tom Reidy, have been coaching together for almost two decades. Their commitment to volunteerism in the Mitchell Ringette Association continues to impact dozens of girls across Southwestern Ontario.

This story starts when I met one of my best friends, Sam Reidy, on the first day of kindergarten. Even though we only lived a few miles away in a small farming community, our families didn’t know each other. It was mere coincidence that Sam and I were both registered to join Mitchell’s bunny ringette program in senior kindergarten.

For my family, ringette was not a new sport. My mom, Rose, grew up playing ringette in Mitchell and continued to play even after she had kids. Beyond being a goalie for any open team that needed one, she also volunteered as a coach with the Mitchell Ringette Association for years before she had kids.

As for the Reidy Family’s decision to register Sam for the sport… it was not quite the same as ringette was new to them. Neither of Sam’s parents grew up around the game, nor were they raised in the Mitchell area.

When our bunny-league ringette team was looking for volunteers, my mom and Sam’s dad, Tom, were quick to step up. After all, they both had multiple kids in the program as our brothers played alongside us. Crazily enough, the pair really enjoyed coaching together. In fact, they liked it so much that they went on to work as a team for over a decade.

Even though Mitchell is a small association, Sam and I were lucky that there was enough talent to support provincial-level teams in our age grouping every year. Looking back, this pool of talent can be largely attributed to the efforts of my mom and Sam’s dad.

Together, they coached Sam and I from the time that we were in bunny to our final year of U19. We only ever played one season during that time where our parents were not behind us on the bench.  

Together, our parents crafted a strong team in Mitchell. The teams they coached won multiple provincial titles in the McCarthy division and were often competitive in provincial competition. The system between my mom and Tom worked very well. My mom loved focusing on defence, while Tom crafted plays and worked on the offence. Their passion for the game shone through - they often went the extra mile for their players. They loved creating dynamic practice plans (that included a ton of skating), watched high-level games to get inspiration for plays and were passionate about making sure that their players had fun in the process.

Sam and I ended our ringette careers in Mitchell when we moved away to post-secondary. Sam studied at Fanshawe College, while I was on the other side of London at Western University. While our parents’ days behind the bench were over, Sam and I weren’t ready to hang up our skates quite yet. In college, Sam joined London’s Open ‘A’ Ringette program and I played on Western’s varsity ringette team. With this new shift, our parents quickly became our most loyal fans. They hardly missed any of our respective games during this time. They always loved calling us after the game to debrief, asking us about the drills we’d run at practice and the new plays we were implementing in our games.

I always found it special the way that ringette brought the Reidy family into my life, even after Sam and I no longer played on the same time. Tom was in the arena the day that I won a provincial title with Western’s ringette team in 2022. He was also one of the first calls that I made when I was admitted to law school. The same can be said for Sam - my mom has attended her tournament games and watched livestreams as she ran in national level cross-country championships for Fanshawe College.

Sam and I often talked about how much our parents seemed to miss their glory days on the bench. We’d discuss how they loved supporting us in our new chapters and how they were always keen to “talk shop” with us after our games. We knew that there was a void for both of them.  

In all these conversations, we kept saying that it would be nice to see them get back on the bench. However, we never expected that they actually would. Nearly four years after their retirement, they proved us wrong. In 2022, my mom announced that she would be joining the bench staff of the Mitchell Stingers U14A team. The team was in need of some volunteers and, to my surprise, my mom decided to step up. When the team was looking for more help, my mom gave Tom a call. I don’t think that it took all that much convincing to get him back on the bench. I know that he really missed it too.

The rest has been history.

Along with some amazing bench staff, my mom and Tom have been working with the U14A Stingers for the past two seasons. Last year, they won gold in the McCarthy division at provincials. They have big plans for this upcoming season.

Although we’re both settled in London, Sam and I try to volunteer with the U14As whenever we can. We love helping the players and being on the ice… but there is something special about getting to be a part of something that our parents are so passionate about. We’ve always had the perspective of being the players while they coached, so it’s been a shift to work with them as fellow instructors.

It's a profound thing to share a love of sport with your parents. Sam and I are both so proud of them. Not only have they touched our lives, but also those of some of our closest friends and former teammates. They’ve had a hand in making us all into the people we are today. It’s inspiring to see them continue to shape the lives of the next generation of young girls in the Mitchell community - a community that means so much to both Sam and I.

The power of sport is unbridled. The game of ringette has not only given me memories with my mom, but also with the Reidy family - they have truly become like a second family in my life. This is all because of the special relationship that my mom, Tom, Sam, and I share through the game of ringette.

For all the years that our parents came to coach us, cheer for us, and support us - we can’t wait to do the same for them this upcoming season with their U14 team. We’ll be in the stands cheering loud for two of our biggest heroes and best friends.