City commemorates rugby pitch for Rowan Stringer

Ottawa city council has approved naming a Nepean rugby pitch after Rowan Stringer, the high school student who died in May 2013 after suffering multiple concussions while playing the game.

The pitch at Ken Ross Park on Longfields Drive would be Rowan’s “lasting legacy” said Mayor Jim Watson.

Stringer, a 17-year-old student at John McCrae Secondary School in Barrhaven, was an avid rugby player. An inquest into her death this year produced 49 concussion awareness and education recommendations.

That included the creation of Rowan’s Law, which would require concussion education for athletes, coaches and parents, see that a child or youth is removed from play if a concussion is suspected, ensure the athlete doesn’t return to play without medical clearance, and put strategies in place to help athletes as they return to sports and school.

Outside council chambers Wednesday, Rowan’s mother Kathleen Stringer said she “couldn’t help but think that Rowan would have a huge smile on her face” about having the pitch named after her.

She hopes that coaches refer to the field as “Rowan’s pitch” and that the reference will stimulate questions from young athletes about Rowan and the need to treat sports injuries with respect.

Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod wiped away tears in council chambers as the naming was announced.

She is set to introduce the bill that will create the framework for Rowan’s Law this fall. Preparing the bill has required input and co-operation from a number of provincial ministries, including education, child and youth, health and culture and sport.

Rowan’s father Gordon will be a member of that committee. He was at the 12-day inquest earlier this year and said the biggest challenge for him will be to convey the essence of the inquest recommendations, and the background behind them, to the committee. “My role will be that conduit into the recommendations, to try to address as many of the 49 recommendations as possible.”