Darrin McKechnie BA(Adv)’93

By Julie Woldu BAJ'07

Hockey brought Darrin McKechnie to the University of Regina Cougars, but he left with more than just success on the ice – he gained valuable preparation for the future. “I owe the program a ton,” says McKechnie, looking back at the past few decades, which began with five years playing with the Cougars between 1988 and 1993. “I would never have guessed that this is the path that would present itself. I’m just a very, very lucky person.”

After playing in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, McKechnie played for two seasons with the WHL’s Regina Pats, amassing an impressive point total. He considered options for playing professional hockey in Europe, but ultimately decided to take advantage of his WHL scholarship money and attend university. “Bill Liskowich was the Men’s Hockey Head Coach at the U of R. He called me, and I had so much respect for Bill, so it just seemed like a really good fit to go and play for him.”

Under Coach Liskowich, the team quickly improved, even finishing in first place in 1991-92, though ultimately, the Cougars lost that year in the league final to the University of Alberta Golden Bears, as they had in 1990-91 and would in 1992-93. “We were ranked number one in Canada a couple of those years,” McKechnie recalls, noting that making it to the final three years in a row were particularly memorable. “We had a lot of success and won a lot of games. I have so many highlights, from being a fledgling team trying to get into that upper echelon to upset victories over Calgary for our first playoff series win.”

His greatest highlight, however, was the long-lasting friendships he made with his teammates from those five years. “We were such a tight group then and still are all these years later.” McKechnie also won a few national awards, including being named to the Canada West All-Star team in 1992 – the same year he was named the CIS Most Sportsmanlike Player.

Black and white archival image of individual in hockey jersey
Darrin McKechnie BA(Adv)'93 Photo: U of R Athletics

"I’m looking forward to hopefully being with the team for a long time."

His five years of successful, enjoyable hockey with the Cougars led to a career with the Regina Police Service and coaching opportunities that continue to this day. “After five years of going to school, I had a degree, I had some life experience, and it translated into a successful application with the Regina Police,” says McKechnie. “I can’t imagine doing anything else as a career. I loved every second.”

Becoming a police officer hadn’t been McKechnie’s plan. He achieved a Bachelor of Arts with a major in geography, assuming he would become an urban planner. Instead, after a few conversations with close friends who were police officers, he considered a different path. His career took him through various roles within the Regina Police Service, including 12 years on the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team. “It was exceptional training and so much of a team atmosphere, just like hockey,” he says. McKechnie also worked in the gang unit, major crimes, and then entered management, where he was in charge of the SWAT team and other specialty units such as K9, the bomb team, crisis negotiators, and the dive team.

While advancing his career and growing his family, McKechnie stayed heavily involved in hockey. He played senior hockey, including in the Allan Cup in 2000 along with several of his former Cougar teammates, before coaching became his focus.

His first opportunity to coach was with Liskowich, who asked him to return as an assistant coach with the Cougars in 1996 – which meant coaching some of his former teammates. When Liskowich left the team after the 1999-2000 season, McKechnie also decided to step away and would soon begin coaching his son, Tanner, who was then in 3-4-5 hockey. “I kept on moving up with him and coached every year, until he left to play junior hockey,” he says. “It was great. He and I are very close, and I think a lot of that is because we spent so much time together.” McKechnie spent the 2014-15 season as an assistant coach with the Regina Pats before taking over as coach of the Midget AAA Regina Pat Canadians for eight years.

Today, McKechnie spends time on his acreage, where he enjoys hunting, fishing, and riding horses. He’s also watched his children succeed – his son as a firefighter and his daughter as she finished her first degree at the U of R and is now in her second year as a medical student through the University of Saskatchewan on the Regina Campus.

He has now returned to his role as an assistant coach with the Cougar men’s hockey team after head coach Todd Johnson asked him to join the team this season. “It’s been 30 years, but the hockey is the same, and the players are very dialed in and want to be better,” says McKechnie. “I’m looking forward to hopefully being with the team for a long time.”

Top: Darrin McKechnie BA(Adv)'93. Photo: Trevor Hopkin, U of R Photography

About the Author

Julie Woldu BAJ’07 is a sportswriter and fiction author based in Regina.

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There was a time when Chris Biegler BA'89, BASc'96 wasn't sure he would continue playing basketball. A conversation with University of Regina Cougars basketball coach Ken Murray changed that - and likely altered the rest of his life. Since joining the team in 1985, Biegler still hasn't left the basketball court - nor the connections and life experience basketball taught him. "For me, it was the whole experience. The people, the players, the team putting in the time together, and the lifelong friendships I made," he says.

While his first season with the team was a rebuilding year, Biegler led the Cougars to rank in the country's top ten and play in the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) Basketball Championships in 1989. He picked up many accolades along the way and remains the only player from the University of Regina to ever win the Mike Moser Memorial Trophy as the Canadian university player of the year (in 1987). He was a three-time All-Canadian, a Great Plains Athletic Conference most valuable player and four-time first-team all-star, a CIAU men's basketball championships all-star, all-time leader in scoring average and free throw percentage, and a
two-time U of R Male Athlete of the Year. He is the only player to have his jersey-number 33-retired by the team. But for Biegler, it's the success of the team that stands out. "You can't inbound the ball to yourself. You always need someone to help you along the way," he says, quickly noting that the Cougars' success in his four seasons with the U of R was a team effort led by Coach Murray.

In 1983-84, Biegler played with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, but said he wasn't ready for university. When he returned to Regina, Murray invited him to practice with the Cougars while he played in a men's basketball league, played with a travelling men's basketball team, and focused on academics. The following season, he committed to the U of R Cougars.

"It was an interesting mix because some of the players I had played against or with through high school. It was very familiar, and we just gelled," he says. "We had the drive to be better, and we wanted to win. So, we worked hard, put in the time, trusted Ken's systems and we would beat better teams."

Chris Biegler Chris Biegler BA'89, BASc'96 in the 80s. Photo: University of Regina Athletics Chris Biegler Chris Biegler BA'89, BASc'96 in the 80s. Photo: University of Regina Athletics

"I tell the kids I coach - put in the time, put in the work, trust your teammates, and work hard together. Magic can happen."

Looking back, it is rewarding for Biegler to have been part of a team that helped set up the future for the Cougars and the rest of his life. He also had the privilege of playing with his two younger brothers, Lawrence and Roland, which is rare in university sports. "In team sports, it's the people, the players, these lifelong friendships I made," he says. "They were my second family. Seven days a week from September to March."

Biegler completed his Bachelor of Arts in Math at the U of R before playing a year of professional basketball in Germany. He enjoyed his time touring Europe and visiting relatives. Then he returned to Regina and worked with Basketball Saskatchewan before returning to the U of R, where he achieved a Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Systems Engineering. It was there he met his future spouse, Leah Lawrence BASc'94. Their careers took them to Calgary, where Biegler worked with ATCO Energy Solutions, and then onto Ottawa in 2015, where he became a consultant with Clean Energy Capitalists.

"Playing a sport - especially a team sport, where people are relying on you, and you go through the cycles of the highs, the lows, the winning, and the losing, putting in the time and the effort, it sets you up further down the road for whatever happens in your life," he says. "You can handle anything because you've experienced the pressure to succeed, the pressure to perform. Working together as a team transfers from sports, and you'll be better at what you do."

Biegler has coached basketball throughout the years and is currently an assistant coach at a high school in Ottawa, while also scouting players in various age groups for club basketball. In addition to playing in a master's league in Ottawa, he plays in masters tournaments worldwide, including the National Masters Basketball Championships in Florida each spring. Next up is the FIMBA World Maxibasketball Championships in June in Switzerland - a tournament he last played in Helsinki in 2019, where his Canadian team reached the quarterfinals.

Even from across the country, Biegler stays connected to Cougar basketball. He returns to Regina a few times a year, and he often catches up with fellow U of R alumni. He was one of the key initiators in the Cougar Alumni Basketball Endowment Fund and continues to be involved with the program. His contributions to the sport have been recognized through inductions into the University of Regina Sports Hall of Fame, the Regina Sports Hall of Fame, the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, and his jersey retirement with the Cougars.

"Coaching, playing, working, I just keep on moving," he says of his life today. "I tell the kids I coach - with sport, you can travel, see your province, see Canada, see different countries. Put in the time, put in the work, trust your teammates, and work hard together. Magic can happen."

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When Meagan Cormier Hamilton BKin'16 joined the University of Regina Cougar women's soccer team in 2009, she had one goal - to play somewhere she knew she would continue to enjoy the game. She found that and so much more. "They were the best years of my playing career," she says of her five seasons, which she finished in 2013 as the all-time leading career scorer, a record she still holds with 21 career goals and 12 assists. "Playing soccer created a work ethic and commitment for me, but playing with the U of R really pushed me outside of my comfort zone and challenged me to be better … it taught me to elevate every characteristic, every quality that I could, which now applies to running a business or being a wife or a mom or a friend."

Hamilton grew up playing soccer in Regina. She was selected to play for Team Saskatchewan at multiple national tournaments and traveled to Edmonton monthly as part of the National Team Program. As rewarding as it was, the intensity in a national program led to uncertainty if soccer was even in her future. "I had a bad injury and even took a full year off of soccer between Grade 10 and 11," she says. "I had to decide: did I want to continue to pursue soccer and work harder and get better, or am I done?"

Needless to say, she decided to continue and even spent a summer in 2008 playing for a semi-professional team, the Edmonton Angels, in the Alberta Major Soccer League. It reignited her confidence and elevated her love of the game and it made her focus on what the sport truly meant and what she wanted out of university.

Individual on soccer pitch. Meagan Cormier Hamilton BKin'16 on the pitch in 2009. Photo: U of R Athletics

"I had so much fun playing for the Cougars. It was the best decision I could have made."

When Hamilton joined the Cougars in 2009, she helped the team continue to build upon the foundation of players-turned-friends - spending as much time together off the field as on it, even travelling together on vacations in the off-season and taking a humanitarian trip together to Mexico in 2012. "When everyone is treated as family and loves and respects one another, it translates on the field, and you want to play for each other," she says.

By her fourth season in 2012, the Cougars finished third in the conference. They hosted a playoff game against the University of Saskatchewan at the beginning of November. "It was so cold," Hamilton recalls. "We scored in the first 15 minutes of the game and then in the last 30 seconds, U of Stied the game and we had to play a 30-minute overtime. We didn't usually get a lot of fans to our games, and that year, with our first playoff game, most of the other Cougar sports teams came out to support us. It was the most packed I have ever seen the stands and the fans stuck it out through that blizzard. When no one scored in overtime, it went to a shootout. We won and everyone rushed the field. It was a surreal experience."

Hamilton spent a month playing for Team Canada at the Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia, before her final season began. Following the season, she took a break from soccer. She focused on her education, finishing her Bachelor of Kinesiology degree at the U of R instead of taking opportunities to play professional soccer in Europe. Soon her interest in fitness turned to bodybuilding. "It was another passion I had found," she says. "I started personal training and began my own business. It's crazy to think that I took about six years away from playing any soccer, but I found other avenues of athleticism that I really enjoyed."

During that time, she met her future husband through bodybuilding, and in 2018, she moved to his home in Houston, Texas, where she is now an owner of Team Hybralete. It's also where she returned to soccer. "We started an indoor women's professional team and are very involved in the soccer community," she says, adding that life is busy with their four Huskies. She and her husband are also expecting their first baby in April of 2025, which has meant a step back from playing soccer while she continues to manage the team.

Hamilton remains close friends with the women she played with on the Cougars and keeps up with the current team. While she is grateful to have left a legacy with her scoring records, she also waits for the day when someone beats them. "I'm really proud of how the program continues to evolve," she says. "I had so much fun playing for the Cougars. It was the best decision I could have made."

Top: Meagan Cormier Hamilton BKin'16. Photo: Michael Hamilton

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