THE SIDEONE PROFILE: LES LAWTON

The winningest coach in women’s college hockey

By Phyl Newbeck

A resident of Jericho, Vermont, Phyl Newbeck is a freelance writer for a variety of newspapers and magazines. She is the author of Virginia Hasn’t Always Been for Lovers: Interracial Marriage Bans and the Case of Richard and Mildred Loving.

During the many years that Les Lawton has been involved in women’s hockey, he has enjoyed bearing witness to the growth of the sport. Lawton began his career at Concordia University in 1982 as an assistant coach and was promoted to head coach the following year. He led the Stingers to 626 wins, making him the winningest coach in the history of women’s collegiate hockey. In 2000, he was named Canada’s top women’s university hockey coach following two straight championships. Hobbled by a stroke, he stepped down from the bench in 2015 but continues to serve as a mentor to the Stingers players and coaches. He credits the increased interest and participation in women’s hockey to its emergence on the national stage. “The big turning point was having a women’s world championship in 1990,” he said, “and then it became an Olympic sport in 1998. When I started coaching, only tomboys played, but now you have a wide variety of athletes.” Lawton is pleased to see leagues forming all over the country including those designed for very young players. “We never had that years ago,” he said.

THEIR PASSION FOR THE GAME

Lawton actually started his career coaching boys at Loyola High School. “After our practice, the girls’ team would take the ice,” he said. “I fell in love with how passionate they were and how attentive they were to coaching.” Lawton never considered leaving women’s hockey to return to coaching men. “Guys always had stars in their eyes,” he said, “but not the women.” He noted that women play for the love of the game, not for the promise of a lucrative professional career. “How many women make a living playing hockey full-time?” he asked. “It’s probably not more than five.”

Since women’s hockey doesn’t allow body checking, Lawton said there is more attention to individual skill levels. He believes the men’s game is moving in that direction as well. Lawton doesn’t have an easy answer for how he became the winningest coach in women’s collegiate hockey, although he notes wryly that the number of wins would have been even higher if the women had more than a 35-game schedule.

Lawton is optimistic women’s hockey will continue to grow. “It’s going to take time,” he said. “You have to be patient. The sport is so young but you can look at all the strides we’ve made in just 20 years.” Lawton pointed proudly to the women who are currently working in professional hockey, including Hayley Wickenheiser, who is the Assistant Director of Player Development for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Cammi Granato, a former Concordia player, who is a scout for the Seattle Kraken who will begin NHL play next season.

“The big turning point was having a women’s world championship in 1990.”

WINNING OLYMPIC GOLD

In addition to coaching at Concordia, Lawton was put in charge of the Canadian national team when it won the world championship in 1994. He noted that in contrast to the Stingers, the national team

didn’t feel as though it was his team. “Coaching the national team has a lot of pressure,” he said, “and you don’t really have time to develop a strong team philosophy.” In addition, there were language barriers with some players who only spoke French. “It was just ‘go out and do your thing’,” Lawton said. The team had only two or three days of practice before the games began. Nevertheless, under Lawton’s tutelage, Team Canada came home with a gold medal.

“Obviously the gold medal game in 1994 was special,” Lawton said. “You’re representing your country.”

Lawton might still be behind the bench if he hadn’t suffered a stroke in 2015. “It was hard, but it could have been much worse,” he said. “I saw people who were bed-ridden and couldn’t walk. I never felt sorry for myself.” It took some time for Lawton to recover from speech and mobility deficits but he has made a lot of progress. “At least I can walk now and talk a bit,” he said.

Despite the stroke, Lawton has taken part in the annual Concordia Shuffle fundraiser. The first year he used a walker and raised $4,000. By 2019, he had ditched the walker in favour of a broken hockey stick and the $9,535 he raised was the most of any individual. Last year, he decided to walk 100K over the course of a week and was able to raise $14,000 for scholarships for the women’s hockey program.

A SPECIAL PLAYER

Although Lawton has hundreds of victories to his name, there are some games that will always stand out. “Obviously the gold medal game in 1994 was special,” Lawton said “You’re representing your country.” However, Lawton also pointed to a game in the mid-1990s when Concordia was playing Toronto. “It was a big game,” he said, “and Toronto had a bunch of national team players including Angela James.” Lawton said the Stingers were losing by a wide margin but came back to win 7-6, solely on goals by Corinne Swirsky. “She scored four goals in three minutes,” he recalls. To this day, Lawton maintains that Swirsky was the most talented player he ever coached and he has her hockey stick mounted in his office. “She never got a sniff with the national team,” he said, “but she was the best university player I ever coached and that included Olympians and six or seven Hall of Famers.”

Another memorable game took place in the 2011 Winter Universiade in Erzurum, Turkey, where Canada also took home the gold. “We never got together as a team until we got there,” Lawton said. “Then we had one practice and a game the next day.” Unfortunately, Finland had played Turkey the day before and won 33-0. Lawton was told that the president of Turkey would be at the game against Canada. “We were furious with Finland,” he said. “I told my team not to take the puck away from the Turkish players. Let them pass and shoot.” By holding back, Canada emerged with a 10-0 victory. “When we got off the ice they treated us like celebrities,” Lawton said.

FOREVER A FAN

Lawton still goes to the rink every day to watch the Stingers practise and play. “I miss coaching,” he said, “but now I get to be a fan.” These days, the team is coached by two former Olympians, Caroline Ouellette and Julie Chu, although Chu is currently on maternity leave. The two women used to play against each other when Chu was the captain of the U.S. national team while Ouellette captained the Canadian squad. “The team is in good hands,” Lawton said.

While Lawton is proud of the athletic achievements of his players, he’s also delighted by their work off the ice. Lawton said he fought to have Concordia allow Andrea Dolan to attend the school even though her grades were sub-par. These days, the medical school graduate is known as Dr. Dolan. Likewise, while Lawton is happy that three of his children played hockey, he is equally proud of his son Lucas, who wanted no part of the sport. “He hated hockey,” Lawton recalls. “He just followed me around on the ice until I had to put him in the penalty box. The only reason he came to the rink was that we went to McDonald’s afterwards.” Looking for an activity Lucas might enjoy, Lawton enrolled him in Irish dance lessons. Now a professional dancer, Lucas competed in the discipline for 15 years and performs all over the world.

“When I started coaching, only tomboys played, but now you have a wide variety of athletes.”

Lawton believes the key to good coaching is communication. “You have to have your door open,” he said, “and feel free to talk to your players about anything, including coursework, professors and family. You can’t rule with an iron fist. You have to talk to your team and try to stay on their level.”