Rya Cowan
Rya Cowan

Bio

Cowan joins the Women’s Softball coaching staff in 2025 and is a LaSalle, ON native who graduated from Sandwich Secondary before playing four seasons with the green and gold between 2018-2022. 

During her award-winning playing days as an infielder (1B & 3B) and pitcher for the Saints, she helped her team to four OCAA Provincial Medals including Gold in 2022 as part of a 34-0 undefeated season which was capped by a CCSA National title.  Other provincial team performances came in the form of two silver medals (2018 & 2021) and a bronze in 2019 on top of another national silver in 2021. 

Cowan’s best individual season was in 2019 when she was named an OCAA League All-Star and the OCAA Player of the Year as well as the St. Clair MVP award while batting .425 with 38 RBI to go with 6 homeruns.  That year she also compiled a 6-3 record in the pitching circle with a 3.63 ERA over 52.0 innings and seven complete game performances.  Those accolades allowed her to be presented with the St. Clair Al Hoffman Athlete of the Year Award for Outstanding Achievement before winning the 2020 WESPY Award for the top Women’s Softball player in the community. 

Over 101 games in her St. Clair career Cowan batted .364 in the regular season and .329 overall which both rank in the top 40 all-time for the Saints.  In 81 OCAA regular season games she ranks 10th in St. Clair history with 68 runs scored and 2nd in home runs with 11 which stands 5th overall for the Saints.  Her 81 OCAA regular season RBI is 7th on the St. Clair all-time list and is 8th with 88 overall in her career.

Cowan pitched 131.0 innings appearing in 42 games for the Saints posting a 12-5 record to go with a save including 9 complete games.  She finished with 61 strikeouts (3.26 per game) while logging a 2.73 ERA to go with a 1.33 WHIP during her time for the Saints.

Cowan owns a pair of Advanced Diplomas from St. Clair College having graduated from the Graphic Design and Business Administration-Marketing programs achieving OCAA All-Academic recognition in 2018-19.  In addition, she was a Board member of the Saints Student Athletic Association but also worked as a photographer and graphic/video designer marketing all the St. Clair College varsity teams.

For the past two years Cowan has been gaining coaching experience as an Assistant with the LaSalle Athletics 15U team.