Female Apprentice Coach Program: Beard

The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is proud to announce its 2020-21 participants in the annual Female Apprentice Coach Program (FACP) for the sport of Volleyball:

Griffons de l’Outaouais, RSEQ

Apprentice: Meredith Beard
Mentor: Grégory Antoine Pilorge

Griffons de l’Outaouais alumnus Meredith Beard has returned to her former Cégep as an apprentice in the CCAA’s FACP. She is being mentored this season by Grégory Antoine Pilorge in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ).

After three seasons with the Griffons from 2014-17, Beard was recruited to the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where she suited up as a libero for two years.

Unfortunately, her University career was cut short due to her fifth diagnosed concussion. Faced with significant cognitive repercussions and long-term health risks, Beard took the difficult decision to leave the sport of volleyball.

“During my recovery, I explored hobbies other than competitive sport but quickly realized that my passion for volleyball had not waned,” she said. “Even though my career as an athlete was over, I wanted to continue to be involved in the sport that made me the person I am today.”

During her time at Outaouais, Beard gained experience working for two off-seasons at the Griffons Summer Volleyball School, where she was responsible for teaching fundamentals to young athletes from the ages of 9-14.

And during the 2019-20 season, Beard took on her first coaching position as an assistant on a women’s U17 team. Despite the season being cut short by the pandemic, Beard worked to develop players motor skills and sense of the game.

“In everything I teach, I always try to focus on the positive points that my former coaches have instilled in me over the past 12 years,” she said. “This short playing season hooked me on coaching and has motivated me to continue at the college level.”

Pilorge, who is in his second year as head coach of the Women’s Volleyball program at Outaouais, has searched high and low for a female assistant since his arrival at the institution.

He believes it is crucial to have a woman on the coaching staff and is thrilled to be working with Beard.

“Meredith’s outstanding leadership inspires other young women to get involved in training young athletes and in coaching,” said Pilorge, who was previously an assistant coach of the women’s team at McGill and served five years as the technical director of volleyball at De Mortagne High School.

“It is important to have a more consistent gender mix of coaches in high-level competitive volleyball,” he said.

With all 2020-21 CCAA Championships cancelled, this season is obviously like none other in CCAA history. This year however, coach education and training – which is key to the CCAA’s FACP – is being further supplemented via the FACP Leadership Development Program. This Leadership Program is developed by former CCAA student-athlete and current CCAA Head Coach and Doctoral student Danielle Cyr, who has been facilitating the mentorship process.

During the first semester, Beard attended all team practices and training sessions. She actively participated in the student-athletes’ development by providing constructive feedback and working closely with certain players to help develop their physical and mental knowledge of the game.

She has already built strong interpersonal relationships with the players by supporting and listening to them when they faced personal issues.

In addition, Beard has also had the opportunity to participate in several recruitment meetings via video conference.

Having a female on the coaching staff that players can confide in and identify with is a fundamental asset for any team, particularly for student-athletes at the collegiate level.  

“I am intimately familiar with the path these athletes are on and can share similar personal experiences in terms of stress management, injuries, training advice and work ethic,” said Beard. “Furthermore, since I continued my career at the University level, I am able to prepare and advise them on the hurdles to come and support them as they trace their own paths.”