Windsor’s Williams embraces being a role model as PWHL comes to Detroit

New York Sirens assistant coach and mental performance coach, Windsor native Lauren Williams (Source: laurenwilly17/Instagram)

The Professional Women’s Hockey League is bringing its Takeover Tour to Detroit this weekend, and it’s a bit of a homecoming for a member of the New York Sirens coaching staff.

On Sunday, March 16, the Sirens will take on the Minnesota Frost at 7:30 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena in the eighth of nine games in the season’s PWHL Takeover Tour.

Behind the bench for the Sirens is assistant coach and mental performance coach, Windsor-native Lauren Williams.

Williams says she loves the opportunity to be a role model and show what’s possible.

“If I can be a role model for young girls in Windsor, to say ‘this is the level I’m at now, but I started in Windsor, I played college hockey, I played professional hockey, and now I’m coaching professional hockey.’ I think it’s amazing,” she said.

Williams grew up playing her minor hockey with the Riverside Rangers boys team, the Windsor Wildcats girls team, and the Southwest Wildcats junior program before moving on to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She also played professionally in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, where she was drafted first overall in 2018, in the PWHPA, and the Swedish Women’s Hockey League before joining the coaching ranks.

Williams says after being a player, she’s seeing the game through a different lens as a coach.

“It’s amazing to get to see the game from a different perspective, but it’s also important to keep in mind that when you’re coaching behind the bench or using video and working with players in the moment, being able to say, I’m seeing this from a totally different vantage point, so I want to collaborate with you on what we’re doing,” she said.

Williams says the crowds they’re drawing for PWHL games are incredible.

“NHL games get really, really loud, but when you have a full stadium of young girls that are screaming, that octave of shriek is at a whole other level. The buildings are amazing, the energy is great, and the fans that we have-I can’t even say how grateful we are for the fans,” she said.

- by AM800’s Rusty Thomson