Rouault readies for her last ride with WolfPack women’s basketball on Saturday

“Mixed emotions,” Rouault says. “I’m excited for what’s next, but also sad that it’s over.”

Through it all, no one could have blamed her for stepping away from the game of basketball. Despite the uncertainty around the program during her tenure, Rouault stuck it out in order to complete her degree and her eligibility.

“There’s not a lot of places you can get a software engineering degree and play a sport at the same time. [School] was really flexible, so I really appreciate that,” Rouault says. “And then the girls on the team kept me around. During COVID, we were really close. I had to stick around for my last two years to see the end of the program out and take those next steps forward.”

Head coach Todd Warnick took the job with the women’s team, after winning the 2022 CCAA National Championship with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. He has nothing but praise, after spending the year coaching Rouault.

“She’s a young woman who has been through four coaching changes in the course of her six-year career, a pandemic, yet through it all has continued to find the passion for this game,” Warnick says. “That’s a unique individual, regardless of whether they’re a student-athlete or not.”

One of the photos the WolfPack sent out in 2017 when Megan committed to play basketball at TRU. – Image Credit: TRU WolfPack Athletics

“To endure those things and still have the passion for something that is incredibly difficult and incredibly challenging to do speaks to her character, speaks to her resiliency, speaks to her strength of person,” adds Warnick. “It speaks to the family background she has, and the foundations the Rouault’s have laid with the WolfPack are very deep and they are a very big part of what it means to be part of the WolfPack.”

Rouault has watched the young core of this team grow and improve over the past two seasons. She’s excited about what the future holds for the program.

“I see a lot of potential, especially with such a young team,” Rouault says. “In the next two or three years, those girls are going to get older and better every year and the other teams will be younger. [The WolfPack] are going to make playoff runs in those years.”

This weekend, the WolfPack faces a Manitoba team with four wins — just two more than TRU has on the season. They’ve been preparing hard, with the hope of building upon last weekend’s win against UNBC. For Rouault, she plans to savour her final weekend in the ‘Pack’s orange and black.

“I think Saturday’s going to be a lot of emotions. I’m probably going to try not to think about it because I know I’ll just overwhelm myself,” Megan says. “It’s going to be crazy, because I haven’t played in front of all of my people in so long, and everyone is going to be here, so I’ll definitely be a little bit nervous when I step out there — but excited.”

by Adam Donnelly

Rouault readies for her last ride with WolfPack women’s basketball on Saturday

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