COACHES IN THE COMMUNITY: LARRY RING

Larry Ring was the Offensive Coordinator for the 2017 OPFL Cumberland Panthers Junior Varsity team this Summer. This was the team that won the Provincial Championship.

Check out this clip of the winning touchdown:
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Growing up, Ring played everything he could; football, hockey, baseball, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, rugby and track. He won the city championships with his team atSt. Pius X High School. He played AAA and Junior hockey. Ring also played for Team Ontario in Rugby. While attending Bishop’s University, Ring played football and hockey.


Ring was with Montreal in the CFL, but he had a back injury that eventually forced him to quit the sport. “I wanted to stay connected to the sport and a year later began as an assistant coach with McGill University. I got hooked right away because it was the closest thing to the feeling of playing and being part of a team. The team started to have success and I really immersed myself into coaching and decided I wanted to do it as a career.” explains Ring.


Ring says his favourite thing about coaching is game day. “I love the adrenaline you feel. I really enjoy trying to make kids better and motivating them to reach their true potentials. I also really like preparing for an opponent each week. I am very competitive and like to win and coaching allows me to do that and also teach the kids I coach how to win and what it takes both mentally and physically.” says Ring.
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Ring says that there are so many rewarding moments as a coach that it is hard to pick just one. “There are moments when I see a kid really improve or tell me I was a big part in shaping his life. I coached university football for 14 seasons so when I reconnect with players I coached it is very gratifying to see how much playing football gave them. If I was to pinpoint the top 2-3 moments it would have to be winning three consecutive conference championships when I was the Head Coach at the University of Ottawa and winning the Vanier Cup (Canadian University Championship) as the Defensive Coordinator at McGill. However, I have had many rewarding experiences coaching my kids in community sport after I stepped away from being a university football coach but the last two years I have been coaching with the Cumberland Panthers and we just won the Provincial Championship. This win is so fresh in my mind and was such a team effort by all the players and coaches that it is such a tremendous moment in my life. Nobody thought we could win and we won with 5 seconds to go which made it an incredible moment.” explains Ring.


Ring says his biggest challenge as a coach “personally, was becoming the Head Coach at the University of Ottawa when the program was in disarray. With the help of some great assistant coaches and key alumni we built the team back up step by step and made them a top program in Canada. Hard work is the key but also having a plan and working smart. This year was also a challenge coaching the Cumberland Panthers Junior Varsity Team. We had 16 players not come out for the team who should have been there, we started the year 1-3 and had our players starting to think we weren't very good and we couldn't win without all the athletes we didn't have. A lot of hard work, sticking to our plan and building up our kids mentally led us to win our last 7 games and the Ontario Championship.”     

Do you know of or are you a coach in the Ottawa area? HESN wants to hear from you, contact us at [email protected].    ​