In 2016, Rebecca Russell '01 became the first female head coach of a Newfoundland League Senior Men's Hockey Team, the Clarenville Ford Caribous.

Her path to professional head coach followed a successful career as a player, first at Berkshire and then as an All-American at St. Lawrence University, and later skating for Calgary's Oval X-treme. Along the way, Russell has coached the Canadian National Team Program, launched an elite female hockey program in British Columbia, and even finds time to help run her family business and a sports consulting firm.

Sylvia Gappa, who coached Rebecca at Berkshire, remembers that she "was a hard worker and could skate well, shoot hard, and had great hands. She was one of the stronger players in the league and I remember college coaches coming to watch her play. She was a great teammate and leader in the locker room. She represented Berkshire well on and off the ice."

What are your fondest memories of Berkshire, and what are the most important life lessons that you learned as a student?

It's very hard to pick just one memory from my three years at Berkshire. They truly were some of the greatest years of my life. There are a lot of little things that stand out in my mind, but the best memories had to be playing the sport I love, with my best friends, for the greatest coaches I ever had!

I was not the strongest student before I came to Berkshire. I got by, but it was Berkshire that taught me what a student athlete really is. I learned how to be the best student I could be and manage my time to excel on the ice/field while maintaining the best grades I could. The support I had at Berkshire to excel as a student changed my life.

Can you tell us about your career and hobbies, and why you are passionate about them?

I saw what the coaches and teachers at Berkshire did for so many young students and athletes, and it became a passion of mine to do the same. I was lucky enough to play the game of ice hockey until I was 27 years old. When I stopped playing, coaching became my career and I truly am passionate about it! Now I own and operate my family business, along with coaching the next generation of kids in my hometown.

My coaching career began at the University of Calgary in 2010, where I served as an assistant coach. At the same time, I started coaching with the Canadian National Team program. The following year, I moved to Penticton, BC, to the Okanagan Hockey Academy and helped start a female hockey program as the head coach. During those years I was also an assistant coach for the Team Canada U22 team at the Women's Nations Cup (formerly known as the Meco Cup) in Germany. I also won a World Championship Gold Medal with the Team Canada U18 National Team as an assistant coach. After that, I moved home and become the technical director for my hometown minor hockey program and was offered the head coaching job for a men's senior hockey team, Clarenville Ford Caribous. I still hold those roles, and we are in the first round of our playoff season.

How did Berkshire help you shape and pursue your goals?

Lori and Dean Charpentier were my hockey coaches at Berkshire. They were tough and they expected the best from us each day—not only on the ice but in the classroom, and more importantly as people. They taught me how to handle the pressure of life as a student athlete along with how to be a humble, dedicated, hard-working person. These are qualities my family emulated as well, but they were really great lessons Mr. and Mrs. Charps taught me. I owe them so much and miss them to this day.

Since the day I stopped playing hockey, I have coached the game at many levels. I am the coach I am today because of Mr. and Mrs. Charpentier and the person I am today because of the lessons they helped teach me. If I could be half the coach they were for me, I think I am doing okay.

What advice would you give to today's students?

Enjoy every single minute of your time at Berkshire. There will be tough days and days that frustrate you, but look around and realize the people you are surrounded by are some of the greatest people you will ever meet. Take in every moment, learn from your achievements and also your mistakes. I know it is hard to see now, but do not take a single experience for granted. Whatever I have done in my life, this motto from the Berkshire hockey program will stay with me for a lifetime: "The applause soon dies away, the prize is left behind, but the character you build is yours forever."