UWindsor alum, Indigenous graduation coach and Lancer football offensive line coach Randy Beardy (KYLE ARCHIBALD/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
Randy Beardy never imagined himself becoming a teacher.
“I’m kind of a rebel at heart,” he laughs. “If you tell me to do something, I have a hard time doing it.”
Rather than following in his mother's footsteps — also a University of Windsor BEd alum, Beardy (BA Psychology ’17, BEd ’24) says he wanted to become a football coach.
Now an Indigenous graduation coach at the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) and the Lancer football offensive line coach, Beardy has found a way to do both and has discovered a love of teaching in the process.
“I found this beautiful space right now where I am working with students, I spend time with students and make sure they’re getting everything they need to be able to have success,” he explains.
As a graduation coach, and formerly Indigenous instructional coach for teachers, Beardy splits his time between four public high schools in Windsor and Lasalle, supporting Indigenous students in reaching their goals.
In his former role as Indigenous instructional coach, Beardy worked with teachers and sometimes administration on integrating Indigenous content into their classrooms.
As someone trained as a science teacher, Beardy says the role was a challenge, but a welcome one, helping teachers from across disciplines, from the Grade 11 Indigenized English class, to history, geography and even manufacturing technology, integrate Indigenous perspectives.
Now, as a graduation coach, Beardy works more directly with students.
“I really enjoy that,” he says.
“One of the reasons you get into teaching is to work with kids. To be able to support them from Grade 9 to Grade 12, the goal at the end of the day is to focus on academic success, student well-being, building relationships and looking at different career pathways.”
Beardy also supports three alternative education programs in the city in addition to the four secondary schools.
“It’s definitely a unique experience as a teacher,” he says, describing building relationships with students as the most fulfilling aspect of the work.
“At the end of the day, when you go into the school and they’re excited to see you, when they know they can confide in you, that they’ll come to you for support and ask for help, and you start seeing them build those skills that are going to allow them to be successful, those are the things I get excited about. It’s cool to be a part of it.”
As a First Nations person himself, Beardy says that he relates to some of the questioning students may be doing around their Indigenous identities and understanding their place within their culture.
He also describes his relationship to football as deeply interwoven into his First Nations identity.
“Football gave me that safe place to be myself and to feel comfortable and to excel,” he explains.
“Now that I am teaching First Nations, Métis and Inuit students, my identity as a First Nations person is a huge part of my role, and so is my identity as a football coach and how I’ve been able to role model and take pieces of the kind of person I want to be from the people I’ve been surrounded with through the game.”
“I’ve been able to be able to share those things with the next generation of players I work with year in and year out.”
In addition to his work with the GECDSB, Beardy has maintained a coaching role as offensive line coach with the Lancer football team.
He brings not only his five years of playing experience with the Lancers to the position but also what he learned while playing in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Ottawa RedBlacks.
Beardy was drafted by Ottawa but asked to be released to play his fifth year of Lancer football before returning the following year to play in the CFL.
Injuries during the off-season ended his professional football career and started him on his path to coaching back in Windsor but not before Ottawa’s Grey Cup championship run in 2016.
“When I went to the CFL and saw how they operated and supported their players, it made me think, I can come back to the University of Windsor and offer some of that as well,” says Beardy.
He returned to Windsor the following year as a coach and has been with the squad ever since.
“This is something I plan on doing for a long time. I really enjoy connecting with these young men, helping them figure out and go through the next four or five years, figure out what kind of person they want to be and become a better man, a better husband, a better father as they go on in that next chapter,” he says.
As for Beardy’s next chapter, he recently got engaged to a fellow BEd alum who he met as a teacher candidate in the Faculty of Education.
He continues to balance his work at the school board mentoring Indigenous students with supporting the Lancers offensive line on the field.
“Hopefully, we can win that championship moving forward,” he says.
Teacher Appreciation Week runs May 4 through May 8, 2026. For more information on teacher education programs, visit the Faculty of Education website.