Sports

Focus keeps Ng at the top of her game

By Don Fennell

Published 1:36 PDT, Fri August 17, 2018

Last Updated: 2:12 PDT, Wed May 12, 2021

An inherent love for sports keeps Teagan Ng busy. An uncompromising desire to succeed keeps her at the top of her game.

Whatever the challenge, on the field of play or in the classroom, the young Richmondite continually displays the characteristics of a born leader and achiever.

Going into Grade 9 at McMath Secondary where she has played for the school’s volleyball, basketball and soccer teams while maintaining straight As, Ng is a self-motivator who leads by example.

“Teagan is self-motivated on and off the field,” says her dad Greg, a physical education teacher. “She has a quiet confidence any time she plays sports, but she is not necessarily the loud, motivational voice of her teams. Her willingness to take the ball and have that hunger to score is what sets her apart.”

Ng’s sporting prowess recently took her to Halifax for the Canadian Bantam Girls Lacrosse Championships, where she earned all-star honours after leading Team BC to gold (with back-to-back victories over previously-undefeated Alberta) and leading the club in scoring. It was the second year in a row she was named to the five-player national tournament all-star team. She also spent last weekend in Los Angeles, helping Denver Elite win a title at the U.S. box lacrosse nationals.

Ng’s affinity for lacrosse began early. Her grandfather, a former New Westminster Salmonbellie, gave her a little pink lacrosse stick when she was three years old. She started playing for the Richmond boys’ team when she was five.

“I like playing with my lacrosse family, the boys and girls that I’ve grown up playing with,” she says. “It’s the lacrosse community that I really like. I want to compete at the highest levels and be seen by colleges. Hopefully, I can get a scholarship.”

Ng also shows a particular talent for soccer, a sport both her parents played. She and her under-14 Richmond Strikers teammates recently netted bronze medals at the Provincial A Cup played in Richmond. The bulk of the team, under the guidance of head coach Mandhir Punia, has played together since under-10 and is expected to remain mostly intact next season.

Ng has been fortunate to play with “great teammates” and been coached by some “amazing local coaches,” dating back to her elementary school years at Dixon, says Greg. She is happy to share her accomplishments with them, but prefers not to be the centre of attention.

But Greg is most proud that she is able to play multiple sports at a high level without compromising her academics and social life.

Listing Vancouver Whitecaps’ teen star Alphonso Davies, who will play for Bayern Munich beginning next season, as her favourite pro athlete “because he accomplished so much at a such a young age and because he works so hard,” Ng relaxes by playing guitar and walking her dog.

Ng is enrolled in the McMath Explorations program, a three-year program in which students from Grades 8 to 10 move through three core subject areas in science, English and social studies as a group. It provides the opportunity for student-centered learning and assists students in developing leadership skills and the tools to learn both co-operatively and independently. It is designed to meet the needs of potentially high-ability and well-motivated learners.

Ng was also the Grade 8 female athlete of the year at the school, and received a principal’s distinction award for achieving those impressive academic marks—further indicators of a young person going places.

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