You might say Dylan and Louisa Hughes are right on the ball for the St. Thomas Tommies.
The soccer ball, that is. Brother and sister both starred as players in the Tommies soccer program. Dylan was an ACAA all-star for four years and team MVP, and Louisa was a two-time first-team and one-time second-team all-star and key to the Tommies 2018 ACAA championship team.
Now they’re back as assistant coaches. Dylan is part of head coach John-Ryan Morrison’s staff, which completed a third consecutive unbeaten regular season last week, finishing with a 10-0-2 record. Louisa is part of rookie head coach David Itoafa’s staff, which won two clutch games last week to finish in the final playoff spot in the women’s standings with a 5-6-1 mark.
Both have plenty on the go beyond the pitch. Dylan is just getting settled into a new job with a San Francisco-based financial tech company and is a husband and father to two little girls.
“It’s a difficult time to be transitioning jobs, trying to be the best father I can be, and also trying to play an important role as an assistant coach,” said Dylan. “But I remind myself that I can do hard things. Perhaps that’s what caffeine is for, to keep you going.”
Louisa can relate, and she jumped at the chance to join Itoafa’s staff.
She’s in her third year as a middle school teacher after graduating from STU with her Bachelor of Education degree in 2021. She just completed the season as co-coach of the varsity boys soccer team at Nashwaaksis Middle School and has a partner, a rambunctious retriever puppy, and a kitten at home.
“I knew Dave just from being in Fredericton,” she said. “I told him, ‘I’d really love to be on the other side of things…if I can’t play, I’d love to coach. I feel like this program really made me love soccer again.”
The hectic stretch will continue this weekend with the ACAA championship tournament being hosted by the Mount St. Vincent Mystics in Halifax.
The women will kick off tournament play Saturday at 10 a.m. against the 12-0-0 Holland College Hurricanes of Charlottetown. The men are on the pitch that afternoon at 3:30 p.m., facing the host Mystics.
Should they win, they’ll advance to Sunday’s championship final matches; the women’s game is at noon, and the men’s match is at 3 p.m.
An Incredible Journey
It’s already been an incredible journey for both Dylan and Louisa. Both are products of the Fredericton District Soccer Association and the Fredericton High School program, which went on to soccer success as players in green and gold.
Dylan went from FHS to MTA to play soccer, but a dislocated shoulder ruined his season. He played senior-level soccer with many of the STU players and switched to STU in 2010-11 to pursue a major in Economics. He got the degree and was a CCAA National Scholar all four years.
Dylan’s introduction to coaching came about in a curious fashion. He had kept tabs on the Tommies program from afar, often tuning in on video to watch Louisa’s games. The Tommies were short-staffed at a tournament in Montreal, and Morrison invited Hughes down from Ottawa to help out. He liked it. So when he and his wife Ashley returned to Fredericton during the pandemic, he accepted Morrison’s invitation to join his staff.
Since then, the Tommies have reeled off three unbeaten regular seasons: 30-0-6 overall. The battle for the banner last year has been their lone loss.
As a coach, he believes he plays a key role in “being able to expose the guys to what life looks like as a student-athlete…ensuring that the guys are taking care of their bodies but also able to have some fun and enjoy their time at STU.”
Louisa’s path to campus was similar. She juggled soccer and hockey for a while. Morrison and Michelle DeCourcey were her coaches in high school, and it was Morrison who encouraged her “in a nice way, to try to play soccer at the highest level possible,” she recalled.
But a combination of homesickness while in Halifax and a change in courses brought her a chance to play for the Tommies and help them to an ACAA title – the first for the Tommies women’s side since 1999-2000.
“It was really fun to be part of that,” she said. “And the next two years I played, we made it to the finals both years.”
She earned her Bachelor of Education degree from STU in 2021 and began teaching and coaching right away, first in Hartland and now in her second year at Nasis Middle School.
The men are favorites to bring back the ACAA championship banner. If they do, they’ll head to Windsor, Ont. to compete at the national championship tournament at St. Clair College from Nov. 8-11.
But Dylan takes nothing for granted. “It’s an “anyone can win” type of weekend in Halifax. So, you kind of have to take that grit and willingness to win and apply that to anyone you’re facing. It’s two ninety-minute matches, and anything can happen.”
The women are underdogs against unbeaten Holland College, “but anything can happen in this league,” said Louisa. “It will be whoever brings their ‘A’ game, I think, because they’re definitely a beatable team.”