NOT only showing her leadership skills on the pitch, goalkeeper Megan Cunningham has taken her learnings from the game to help inspire the next generation at Rangers.
Alongside her duties between the posts, the shot stopper tries to balance her duties to coach those who are trying to make the grade within the club’s academy.
In our next installment in our features for Scottish Women’s & Girls in Sport week, the 30-year-old spoke of going down that route and how she looks to play her part in helping the club continue to develop talent.
She commented: “I did a bit of coaching over in America before I came to Rangers. Primarily with outfielders, I remember taking really young ones in the morning, from ages five to nine. You think a basic passing drill would be super easy to do, but then you realise it is like babysitting.
“You really have to take it all the way back to even teaching a kid how to put their foot on a ball, and it is like this is mental how you just take for granted your ability and the level of coaching that you have or not required until a certain point.
“The ability to then break it down into something that they would understand, and there are so many different learning styles out there as well for kids nowadays.
“I think even working with the academy, you can see the different characters you have got.
“You have some really loud ones, really quiet ones, and it is trying to mould your session to help them and what they need and require.
“That is sometimes not as easy as it always looks, like on a piece of paper.
“You might have a session plan, and you realise you turn up and you have got a really quiet one today, and you're like, it's not going to work, scrap that.
“It is learning to adapt on the spot, or the coach is saying I need the goalies right from the beginning, you are like super - I have got three minutes to warm them up.
“As you become a coach, you are getting that experience of seeing it from the other side, and it has been really beneficial. Not only for the coaching side but for me as a player.”
Cunningham has worked her way through her badges and has praised the opportunities that are now continuing to pop up in ever ever-evolving women’s game.
She added: “I have been less harsh on the coaches nowadays because I know what it is like getting a bit of grief from them.
“There was a big push for women's coaches more from the SFA, so a lot of funding was provided. I was lucky enough to get my C-License covered and my goalkeeping B-license, which was fantastic.
“It was a really humbling and educational process for it, and it has been amazing what that can open up opportunities for. In terms of being able to come into Rangers and work with the academy.
“Unfortunately, not as often as I would like, but the times I have been able to come in and actually do that have been brilliant.
“Some of the young girls are just fantastic, and I always think to myself, it would have been amazing to have some coaching at that level.
“I don't think I had my first goalie coach until I was at Under-15s.
“It was just some dads hitting volleys at you in a warm-up, so for these girls to get that level of coaching that they do and are provided for is unbelievable at this kind of age, so it has been quite nice to be able to have that opportunity.
“To give back to the sport and try to encourage the next generation of girls coming through.”
Derek Gaston, who is still a current goalkeeper himself but also coaches within the Gers’ academy, praised the shot stopper for her contributions and for using her experience to help younger players.
He said: “It is good for the academy goalkeepers having people like myself in there, but I think it is a totally different thing having a first-team goalkeeper, especially a Rangers goalkeeper, in teaching them what it takes to be a women's goalkeeper at Rangers.
“The atmosphere that she brings back to the environment is good as well. She is always really positive with the girls in the academy.
“I think they can see how much it means to her to be involved at the club as well, and that can only be a good thing for the young goalies to look at her and look up to and see what it means to Megan.”
One young shot stopper Cunningham has worked with is Under-17’s goalkeeper Alex Reid, who spoke of the impact she had on her game and the learnings she has taken from working with a senior goalkeeper.
Reid said: “As soon as I started playing football, I was a goalkeeper; I have just enjoyed it my whole career.
“She is good, it is definitely a different environment coming in and having someone of that much experience coaching you as a player themselves. She has got really good confidence, and it is more confidence in games that she has definitely helped me on the mental side of it as well.
“It is an inspiration to be where she is and her determination, especially to the younger girls in the academy, to keep pushing to get where she is now.”
Cunnigham added: “Alex [Reid] is actually such a nice girl. For her, she is at that age where you kind of grow at different rates of probably what your mind and body are going through, lots of different transitions.
“As a goalkeeper, you are kind of going from getting used to playing that 11-a-side, then also the expectations at Rangers are a lot more with goalkeepers being able to work with their feet.
“I think Alex technically makes unbelievable saves, sometimes, I look at her and I think I don't know how you have saved that. She has got this ability just to make really good saves.
“For her, it was just about learning to relax a little bit. I think she puts a lot of pressure when it comes to the ball at her feet.
“It was just to say to her, chill out, relax, it is not going to happen overnight.
“The more tense you are, the worse you are going to feel, and it is just understanding that you have got more time than you think.
“Not to rush things, and we talked a lot about working on the simple things, like her first touch to help her.
“Just encouraging and owning that style that she is going to be coming into, and really hit home that we work on these weaknesses as much as we possibly can.
“I say weaknesses, it is minor things, but it is enough to know what is going to separate you and that level and progression line.”
Watch all the episodes in full below.
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