JULIA

Julia Sugawara

Julia Sugawara has been a coach with the TWU men’s and women’s rugby teams since the program restarted in 2018. Over that time, she has held various roles and is currently an assistant coach with the men’s program.

She came to the program with an impressive pedigree as both a coach and a player. Having coached at Burnaby Lake Rugby Club and different provincial age-grade teams, she continues to be involved in developing male and female players at varying levels in the community and province.

As a player, Sugawara was a fixture for Canada from 2004-2014, earning 46 caps. Her time with the national team involved three Rugby World Cup appearances, including Canada’s best-ever silver medal-winning performance in 2014. She played her club rugby with both the Burnaby Lake Rugby Club, from 2001 to 2015, and with Saracens Women in London, from 2008 to 2009.

Sugawara is passionate about developing her players holistically and helping them to achieve success on and off the field, challenging players to become the best version of themselves.

Sugawara has a Bachelor of Arts (’05) and Bachelor of Education (‘18) from Simon Fraser University and a Masters of Applied Linguistics and Exegesis from TWU (ACTS Seminaries ’08). When not coaching rugby, she works as an elementary school teacher.