Ravens Announce Volunteer of the Year Nominees

One week before the 2024 Varsity Banquet, Carleton Athletics is proud to announce the Varsity Council Volunteer of the Year Award nominees. 

The award is presented to a volunteer or part-time staff member associated with one of the varsity teams who goes above and beyond the expectations of their role with the team.

Alex Laberge-Chung - Football

The Ravens Defensive Quality Control Coach, Laberge-Chung played a key role in supporting Defensive Coordinator Alex Lothian. In his first season after graduating from the program, Laberge-Chung dedicated countless hours to ensuring the growth and development of Ravens student-athletes. 

The Ravens Defensive Quality Control Coach, Laberge-Chung played a key role in supporting Defensive Coordinator Alex Lothian. In his first season after graduating from the program, Laberge-Chung dedicated countless hours to ensuring the growth and development of Ravens student-athletes.

Bill Courchaine - Women's Hockey

The women's hockey team's lead assistant Bill commits full-time hours to the program despite being only a part-time assistant. While working full-time in the community, Bill commits to more than 16 hours of practice and games per week, managing the team's defence and defensive systems. 

On top of his coaching commitments, Bill is the Lead Recruiter for the program, travelling across the province scouting, and leading the team recruiting and scouting cycle. Bill is the team's first point of contact with new recruits making introductions and managing meetings while coordinating with recruiting staff and the team's coaches to manage the depth chart list for incoming players.

Jessica 'Barnie' Joubarne - Rugby

Jessica Joubarne has been an assistant with the program since 2019. She has helped the program through the COVID season where there were no games. Today, she is the Lead Backs Coach with the program overseeing Back set piece attack and defence.

Jessica dedicates numerous hours fostering and mentoring young players both on the pitch but also off the pitch through 1-on-1 meetings, individual film, and individual kicking sessions. Jessica has been part of the coaching staff that helped the Ravens win back-to-back RSEQ bronze medals. She also plays a critical role with recruiting in the local community as a local U18 girls rugby coach with the Ottawa Irish Rugby Club. Jessica is provides further support to the Ravens as scout for the Eastern Ontario region attending local matches and provincial tournaments.

Megan Donovan - Men's & Women's Soccer

Megan Donovan is the Mental Performance Coach for Ravens soccer working with both the Men's and Women's programs. Megan is responsible the introduction of Mindfulness Mondays, where program members participate in a 15 minute mindfulness or mental activation session. Most sessions revolved around being mindful, being in the present moment, and recognizing that you can play despite negative or unhelpful thoughts or errors. Other sessions focused on strengthening imagery skills, self-talk, goal setting and values.

Megan also delivered customized workshops on values, self-awareness, self-talk, imagery, confidence, and performing under pressure. These additional sessions also included an additional six one-on-one calls and follow-up messaging averaging around 60 minutes of additional support per player.  Megan took her role a step further, increasing her availability to dedicated additional time to the men's team when they prepared for Nationals.