McDonald Ready to Build Winning Culture
The Seneca Sting are pleased to announce that Connor McDonald has been named the Men’s Rugby head coach.
McDonald steps into the head coaching position after previously serving as an assistant coach, primarily with the forwards for two seasons with the Sting (2019, 2023).
With McDonald’s return to the coaching staff in 2023, the Sting reached the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) playoffs after missing out the previous season.
In addition to the team’s improvement during the 2023 season, three Sting were named OCAA League All-Stars (Kyle Moller, Nolan McCullough, Vicente Correa).
Manager of Varsity and Operations, John Sharpe, has been impressed with McDonald as an assistant coach and is confident that McDonald will lead the Sting back to the conference’s elite.
“Connor brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the sport to the Sting. He is a natural leader who commands the respect of the team. Connor will be a great fit to lead the Sting as we build towards an OCAA Championship.”
In addition to coaching the Sting, McDonald has previous experience coaching the Markham Irish Senior Men’s team, both in an assistant role and as the head coach. This experience transitioning from an assistant to the lead position has positioned McDonald well for his new role with the Sting.
“My role will adapt from dealing with the micro to handling the macro. As an assistant, I was primarily responsible for making individual players and specific position sets better on a day-to-day basis. My role as the head coach will change to now dealing with setting the overall style of play for our team, building a winning culture, moving the program’s needle in the right direction, managing my positional staff and ultimately making sure that everyone excels both on and off the field.”
Following the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sting sat out the 2021 season due to low numbers associated with the restrictions from the pandemic. With just four returning players in 2022 and seven in 2023, the Sting were one of the most inexperienced teams in the OCAA each season. McDonald no longer believes this to be the case with a core of returning players to move the program forward.
“We are no longer a green team. We have a lot of our returning players who have experience within a proper system now. I envision our style of play being expansive and hard hitting with immaculate execution in all areas of the game.”
McDonald will be looking to compliment the returning players with a specific type of student-athlete who will not only excel on the pitch, but in all areas at Seneca.
“As a student-athlete, our team represents the entirety of Seneca when they pull on their jersey. With this comes a higher responsibility and our players are expected to act in accordance with the values of our team and school. They will strive to get better every day as a player, a human and student. They will strive for excellence in the classroom, on the field and in the weight room. They will conduct themselves in a manner that best represents the school and our team. Finally, they will hold themselves and their teammates accountable to their responsibilities as a student-athlete, which is so much more than lacing up their boots to step on the pitch.”
Tryouts for the Men’s Rugby team will commence the first week of September. The Sting will begin the regular season in mid-September.