Goodbyes aren’t always easy and if you make an impact on someone’s life, they shouldn’t be.
That’s the case when it comes to women’s hockey coach Rick Osborne, who has been with the team since 2003, as he coached his last home game for the Golden Hawks on Saturday. Osborne has won nine OUA championships and even won a CIS championship with his 2004/2005 squad.
He has also received the honour of OUA Women’s Hockey Coach of the Year five times and Laurier awarded his 2013/2014 team with the Glenn Caroll Team of the Year award.
His wins and losses currently sit at 263-94-24 and his playoff stats are 57-26.
Although coach Osborne has had much success in his tenure at Laurier, not every season went so smoothly, including this year.
The team this year is currently 7-16-3 with only two games left in the season.
Though the season may not have gone like the winning ways of the past, coach Osborne is still very proud of the girls, as he said that this year’s team “is so young and did not have the luxury of a lot of older and experienced positive role models like most of our past teams had.”
Still, he notes the positives that can be derived from this year’s experience.
“I have seen the emergence of some of our second and third year players into real consistent performers game in and game out in the second half of the season,” he said.
Laurier has already met both teams only once this season, but both games resulted in a loss. Now with the momentum on Laurier’s side, Osborne is looking to end his career positively.
This year’s squad however has won their last two games — including coach Osborne’s final home game as women’s hockey head coach in an upset win over Queen’s — and three of their last five.
“Our group has played so many OT and close games all season long, and we really believe that we can compete with the teams in the OUA; Cassie Calabrese and Morgan Bates have been strong leaders inside the locker room, and we have worked through some key players missing due to injuries,” he said.
“Maybe the biggest factor for our modest winning streak has been the accelerated development of goaltender Hannah Miller; she is playing like a seasoned vet and the players have rallied around her,” he added.
Though many girls have gone through the WLU women’s hockey program throughout the years, some even coming out victorious like the CIS title winning 2005 team, every team holds a special place in coach Osborne’s heart, including this one.
“The players on this team are good people and that is what I will miss the most,” Osborne said about the current team.
“For the future, it is important for the players to remember that it never gets easier; university hockey or any sport is more like a business than they are used to in minor hockey,” he added.
“Making tough decisions [is] part of the process, they are never personal; they are made to do what is best for the team/program.”
Although Osborne coached his last home game for the team, the team still has two more games left in the regular season against Nipissing and Laurentian, and both games are being played up North.
Laurier has already met both teams only once this season, but both games resulted in a loss. Now with the momentum on Laurier’s side, Osborne is looking to end his career positively.