Emma Sharp will redefine the role of player-coach during what promises to be a momentous month of May.
Sharp, who will be part of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ coaching staff at Coors Light Training Camp, will also be able to squeeze in defensive-line duty in the trenches with the Regina Riot.
The best-of-both-worlds scenario came to fruition after she was selected as one of the nine women who will spend most of May with a CFL team’s football-operations department as part of the KPMG-sponsored Women in Football program.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said the Regina-born Sharp, whose appointment was announced on Wednesday.
She is a natural, given the many parallels between teaching and coaching.
A 2024 graduate of the University of Regina’s Faculty of Education, Sharp is a substitute teacher in addition to being a full-time — and long-time — football enthusiast.
The Roughriders, born as the Regina Rugby Club in 1910, are about to meet a personable and ambitious young coach whose resume already includes six years of playing experience in rugby.
Sharp was also an avid flag football player until taking up the contact version of the sport in the spring of 2024 — in lockstep with her close friend and now-teammate, Maddy Barnes.
“She said, ‘We’re going to practice today,’ ” Sharp recalled. “I said, ‘OK … what practice?’ She said, ‘Riot practice.’ That’s how we got started … sort of on a whim.
“She had always thought about playing tackle football. I’d always had that thought in the back of my mind. But we had never actually told each other!
“I asked her, ‘What prompted you to suggest this?’ She said, ‘I saw it on Instagram and I started thinking about it.’ I said, ‘I saw it on Instagram, too.’ ”
So it was meant to be.
The scheduling was appropriately fortuitous.
Sharp will be available to play in each of the Riot’s four Western Women’s Canadian Football League regular-season games without missing any time with the Roughriders.
On May 10, for example, the Riot is to play the Saskatoon Valkyries at SMF Field in Saskatoon.
Convenient, indeed, considering that Coors Light Training Camp is to begin on May 11 at Griffiths Stadium on the University of Saskatchewan campus.
Main camp will be preceded by rookie camp (May 7-9). The Riot’s regular-season opener is on May 4 against the host Manitoba Fearless. The Riot will return to Regina in sufficient time for Sharp to then make the trip to Saskatoon for what promises to be an unforgettable four weeks with the Corey Mace-led coaching staff.
“When he called me, it was the best first contact with him that I could have had,” Sharp said with a smile.
“He said, ‘Since you’re new to the Riders, we’re going to put you in every position. You’re going to shadow all the positions and their coaches and learn everything.’
“I said, ‘I’m down for it!’ ”
The same attitude applied to the entire process that led to her selection, beginning with the application.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh, they want to have an interview with me … they want to do another interview with me …. they chose me!’ ” Darrin and Renae Sharp’s 23-year-old daughter said.
“I found out I had been chosen while I was working out. I saw an email that had ‘Congratulations!’ in the subject line. I booked it, ran to my dad, and said, ‘Look at this!’ He said, ‘Go show your mom.’ It was a shock, but it was an amazing shock.
“It was such a surreal experience because I didn’t expect it. I was just running around going, ‘No way!’ I was looking at my dog and going, ‘No way!’
“Ollie doesn’t have a tail that he can wag, but he did do lots of butt-wiggles. He looked at me like, ‘What’s going on?’ He was excited because I was excited. He knew there was something going on.”
There usually is, when it comes to Sharp and football.
Last season, for example, she sought out more football after the Riot’s season finale.
With the assistance of a friend and football official (Zach Jerkovits), Sharp was soon wearing the stripes. She officiated Regina Minor Football games and rural high school football contests.
If that wasn’t enough, Sharp was also part of the ball personnel at games involving the Regina Thunder (PFC) and U of R Rams (Canada West).
“Then, when the CFL posted something about Women in Football, I thought, ‘You know what? I’ll give it a shot,’ ” she said. “I knew I had only one year of (tackle) football experience, but I thought I’d give it a try.”
As the successful candidate, Sharp is thinking far beyond her own interests and the well-earned opportunity that is imminent.
“I think of my little cousin, Rylee, who is involved in every sport possible,” she said. “She’s so excited that girls are in sports and she is already so involved at age seven.
“The goal is for little girls to be able to do what they want to do in sports and not to be told otherwise, or told that it is any different.
“When I applied, I saw it as an opportunity for women to be respected in a sport that is male-dominated. A program like this helps to break down barriers and I am so excited about the opportunity.
“I feel like I will be wide-eyed on the first day, thinking, ‘This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life,’ but I know I’ve got to get to work.”
