From Athlete to Coach: Keegan Murphy & Stéphanie Valois

It’s safe to say that for Keegan Murphy, being a figure skating coach is in his blood. 

Coached by his mother, Eileen Murphy during his competitive career that saw him represent Canada internationally on the Junior Grand Prix Circuit, Keegan has now been a coach himself for over 14 years and recently realized a life-long dream of coaching at the World Championships on home soil in Montreal this past spring. 

“It was awesome and exciting,” said Murphy of the experience where he was coaching men’s skater Wesley Chiu. “There were certainly a couple of moments where I had to take a deep breath, turn around and hide the emotions that were coming. You don’t want your athlete to see that the environment is affecting you, because it’s not supposed to affect them – but it was amazing and something I’ll never forget.” 

Murphy’s attendance at the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships was the culmination of a goal he set when he joined Skate Canada’s National Mentorship Program. Started in 2014, the program provides coaches with tailored support and direction to help facilitate their personal and career growth.  

“The program provides holistic development support to help coaches enhance skills, stay current with best practices, and improve their impact on athletes,” says Skate Canada’s Senior Manager of Coaching Josée Bourdon. “This drives coach excellence within our sport and fosters a culture of continuous development and leadership.” 

Murphy graduated from the program in 2022 alongside another former competitive skater, Stéphanie Valois. 

“Stéphanie, as an example, really took advantage of this development opportunity,” said Bourdon of Valois who coaches pair skaters Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Éthier. “She worked alongside Manon Perron and did career development sessions with Daniele Sauvageau. But what’s really unique for both of them is that at the beginning of their mentorship program, they aspired to coach at a World Championships, and they did that in Montreal.” 

For Valois, the Montreal 2024 experience was something she’ll never forget: “It was amazing, and a memory I will keep for life. Seeing all of the flags, and hearing everyone cheering for the Canadian team was something I will keep in my mind forever.” 

Both Murphy and Valois apply the lessons they’ve learned throughout their coach education journey in their day-to-day interactions with their athletes.  

“What I love the most about coaching is seeing the athletes becoming really great humans. They develop a lot of good values that are going to help them be good people in life. For me, being able to understand that each athlete is a human, and it’s important for them to be able to just grow in the sport and understanding that they have their life, they’re different, and we have to make sure that this is really understood,” said Valois of her coaching philosophy. 

Murphy echoed that sentiment: “It’s been very, very special to work with young athletes from the age of five and six years old like Wesley, and not just form them as figure skaters or athletes, but really watch them evolve into great people with great life skills – and to be with them in some of their serious, most horrible moments, but also some of their greatest moments.” 

As former competitors, both coaches cited their passion for the sport as their main motivation for making the move to coaching. When asked why they felt more athletes should become coaches, they again mentioned having that passion be the core driving force. 

“If you seek a career that you just go nine to five, and then you go on with your life – this isn’t the career for you,” said Murphy. “But if you want to have a career that you come to naturally and that passion is just inherently there, then yes, this is what you should do. At no point when I’m on the ice working, am I ever checking the clock. It’s a total gift to have a career built out of something that is so naturally in you. And every young skater finishing their career has that opportunity, if that’s what they seek.” 

Valois began coaching while she was still competing and found working with the different schedules challenging: “What I found the most difficult is that we had different schedules and we had a life where we were skating, and after that, we had to coach during the night, during the day, during the weekend, so I found that hard. But if you have passion for it, you just have to make the move. It’s going to be challenging, but it’s going to be probably the best decision of your life.” 

For more information on Skate Canada’s National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) and other coach information and opportunities, please click here.