Maggie Mackinnon, back like she never left

VICTORIA - Last November, Maggie Mackinnon sat in Victoria watching the livestream as her teammates battled for a U SPORTS women's rugby championship in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. She watched them fight all the way to the gold medal match, where they eventually fell to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

"I've never wanted anything more than to be on the field helping my team in that moment," says Mackinnon.

Just seven months earlier, Mackinnon had been centre stage, having earned the University of Victoria Vikes Female Athlete of the Year award after posting the best season of her rugby career.

In both fifteens and sevens, Mackinnon excelled as the team's primary drop kicker, goal kicker and out-of-hand kicker, arguably one of the most reliable boots in all of U SPORTS. Her precision piled up points and powered the Vikes women's rugby team to its highest-ever finish, earning her a Canada West All-Star nod, a U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian selection, and a spot on the Canada West Sevens Dream Team along the way.

But just hours after being named UVic's top female athlete, disaster struck. The next morning, Mackinnon joined a couple Vikes teammates at a national team training session, filling in while some regulars were away on tour. Her boot was missing a cleat, so she had to wear an old pair.

 "I thought, these feel kind of loose, like I might sprain an ankle." She didn't sprain an ankle.

One exaggerated change of direction later, and Mackinnon went down. As it turned out, she had torn her ACL— barely a year removed from rehabbing her other ACL, an injury that had kept her out of the 2022-23 season.

Since graduating high school in 2019, Mackinnon has yet to string together two consecutive rugby seasons. Something always intrudes: a global pandemic, a torn ACL, then another. If sports are supposed to reward steady progression, Mackinnon has been playing on a tilted field her entire career.

What do you become when setbacks are the only constant in your athletic career?

In Mackinnon's case, maybe tougher. Maybe more grateful than the players who glide from one season to the next without interruption. Definitely more resilient.
The third-year Vike has turned the very thing that should have broken her into an entirely new outlook.

"I've had a flip in perspective on doing hard things," she says. "I'm just so grateful for everything now. When we have a hard contact practice or conditioning pieces where we have to go to the dark place, I'm grateful. I remind myself that a year ago, I would have done anything to be out here. It's allowed me to push myself to another level."

"I learned that I can do hard things, and I'm just that much more mentally resilient than those who haven't had to overcome the same level of adversity."

From hockey roots to rugby rise

Mackinnon's path to rugby wasn't obvious. Originally from Sooke, B.C., she grew up in a hockey family; her dad, older and younger brother all played, and she followed in their footsteps, playing at the triple-A level with collegiate hockey in her sights.

Rugby, by contrast, was a curiosity she tried briefly in Grade 8, only to quit after a concussion made her wary of risking her hockey future.

It wasn't until high school, thanks to the persistence of Belmont coach Charlotte Haley, that she decided to take another crack at rugby.

She didn't know much about the game, but her talent was immediately evident. Within the year, she was playing for Vancouver Island and Team BC, relying on a combination of hockey-honed toughness and defensive instincts. By Grade 11, she had dropped hockey and made the full switch, drawn by the welcoming community and an abundance of opportunities that seemed suddenly within reach.

The next few years were a whirlwind. Mackinnon earned spots at Team Canada ID camps, rugby sevens development programs, and even represented Canada at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Her Grade 12 year was spent at the newly created Rugby Development Academy, now the Maple Leaf Academy, cementing her path as one of the country's most promising young players.

When it came time to choose a university, UVic was the ideal fit, not only for its academics but for its proximity to Rugby Canada's centralized training hub and the chance to play under head coach Brittany Waters, whose athlete-centred approach resonated immediately.

"I really liked Brittany's energy and attitude. She cares about what's best for her athletes beyond just rugby, but as people," said Mackinnon.

Her first season with the Vikes in 2019–20 went even better than anticipated, showing flashes of the player she would become; however, the pandemic shut everything down in 2020. By the fall of 2021, eager to play meaningful rugby again, Mackinnon jumped at the opportunity to suit up for Railway Rugby Union RFC in Dublin, Ireland—a connection made through Canada sevens head coach at the time, Jack Hanratty. What should have been her next big step ended in heartbreak when she tore her first ACL before the season even began. 

She returned to Victoria to rehab through the 2022–23 season, determined to return to the pitch. By 2023–24, she not only returned but thrived, earning national honours, leading the Vikes to two silver medals, and being named Female Athlete of the Year.

Turning setbacks into strength

Five hundred and thirty-one days since her last match in a Vikes uniform, Mackinnon returned to the pitch to suit up for the opening game of the 2025-26 season. As one of the team's primary on-field decision makers and senior athletes, she was thrown into the fire to either sink or swim, and she swam, posting four points and showing no signs of slowing down.

"I definitely had the first game jitters getting thrown right into it, but I'm just letting myself get better with each practice and each game. I'm focused on the day-to-day and the short game rather than the long term," she says.

Mackinnon has picked up right where she left off—two weeks into the season she leads the Vikes with 18 points, ranking second in Canada West, and has already been named Canada West Athlete of the Week (Sept. 9).

Mackinnon and the Vikes are back in action Sept. 13 against Lethbridge; catch the action live on Canada West TV presented by Biosteel.