MONTREAL – Savannah King, an assistant coach with the McGill University women's swim team, has been selected for the 2021-22 U SPORTS Female Apprentice Coach Program. She was among 18 former student-athletes announced by the national governing body on Monday, in celebration of International Women's Day.

King, a 28-year-old native of Vernon, B.C., who was born in Scarborough, Ont., earned a master's degree in kinesiology from McGill in 2019, where she joined head coach Peter Carpenter's staff. She completed a bachelor's degree in 2016 at UBC, where she was an All-Canadian in the pool and earned Academic All-Canadian honours.

The two-time Olympian competed for Canada at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2012 London Games. A former UBC swimmer, she joined the McGill coaching staff in 2019 after a lengthy international career. King has also competed at the 2007 Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro, the 2009 world championships in Rome, the 2010 Pan Pacific championships in California and the 2011 world championships in Shanghai.

Among those joining King in this year's class for the program's second season are a pair of former national award winners in 2013 U SPORTS female athlete of the year Shanice Marcelle – who played women's volleyball for the UBC Thunderbirds and is now coaching with the York Lions – and two-time U SPORTS Top 8 Academic All-Canadian Ciera Disipio (2017-18 and 2018-19) of the Cape Breton Capers women's soccer program.

This year's class also includes several other national and conference champions, major award winners and All-Canadians or all-stars, as well as national team athletes and Olympians. 

The project aims to increase the number of females in coaching positions across Canadian universities, by matching apprentice coaches who have recently graduated, with a head coach in one of the 11 U SPORTS-sanctioned sport offerings for female-identifying student-athletes.

"We're excited to continue to build our Female Apprentice Coach Program," said Lisette Johnson-Stapley, chief sport officer at U SPORTS, in a press release. "Despite the unprecedented challenges faced in the program's inaugural year, this initiative is already opening new doors, providing the tools for further coaching development and education in Canadian university sport and fostering success to our proud alumnae who aspire to become coaches themselves in the near future."

A total of 46 applications were received for the 2021-22 edition of the program, nearly double from the inaugural campaign, with 18 apprentice coaches selected for the second consecutive year. Nine of the 11 sports are represented – including rugby, soccer, cross country, hockey, basketball, volleyball, swimming, track and field and wrestling – as well as all four U SPORTS member conferences, in addition to the BIPOC community.

All participants in the program will be a member of the coaching staff at their respective schools and where possible, will provide feedback to colleagues as well as student-athletes, while taking part in team activities. Job duties may vary due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Each apprentice coach will also attend at least one National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), with the option to also take additional professional development courses and seminars in the field of coaching.


The 2021-22 U SPORTS Female Apprentice Coach Program
 

Name	Sport	School	Athletic Career	Coaching Career	Hometown
Laura Taylor	Swimming	Memorial	2012-14	-	St. John's, N.L.
Savannah King	Swimming	UBC	2010-15	-	Vernon, B.C.
		McGill	-	2019-Present
Sara Miller	Cross Country	Moncton	2006-10	2016-17	Moncton, N.B.
	Track & Field			2021-Present
Jamie McCarron	Basketball	StFX	2015-20	-	New Glasgow, N.S.
Kayli Sartori	Basketball	Fraser Valley	2012-17	2020-Present	Chilliwack, B.C.
Winta Desta	Basketball	Lakehead	2010-14	-	Ottawa, Ont.
		Ontario Tech	-	2021-Present
Nicole Barnard	Basketball	Queen's	2013-14	2017-Present	Ayr, Ont.
Chanel Ramcharran	Basketball	Bryant (NCAA)	2013-17	-	Pickering, Ont.
		Centennial (OCAA)	-	2018-20
		Ryerson	-	2020-Present
Savannah Newton	Hockey	Boston (NCAA)	2014-18	-	Halifax, N.S.
		Dalhousie	-	2020-Present
Taylor Kezama	Hockey	Alberta	2016-18	2020-Present	Camrose, Alta.
Erica Porter	Hockey	Concordia	2011-16	-	Coaticook, Que.
Catherine Dubois	Hockey	Montreal	2015-20	2020-Present	Charlesbourg, Que.
Carolyn McEwen	Rugby	UBC	2010-15	2018-Present	St. George, Ont.
Sammy Nadeau	Rugby	StFX	2016-20	-	Bewdley, Ont.
		Trent	-	2020-Present
Ciera Disipio	Soccer	Cape Breton	2015-20	2021-Present	Ottawa, Ont.
Kendra Finch	Volleyball	Thompson Rivers	2015-20	2021-Present	North Vancouver, B.C.
Shanice Marcelle	Volleyball	UBC	2008-13	-	Victoria, B.C.
		York	-	2018-Present
Natassya Lu	Wrestling	Guelph	2014-19	2019-Present	Brampton, Ont.