As I enter this new chapter in my life I am making an extra effort to take care of myself physically. I have hired a personal trainer hoping to kickstart a stronger me. I have always been physically active having played sports like hockey, basketball, volleyball, baseball, ringette and more most of my life. I played lacrosse up to the age of 60. I still play pickleball which is my new love, but I have never done much in the area of weight training. As I age I know I need to ensure my body and mind are strong.
I am constantly looking at ways to improve my life and next month I begin focusing on this new area of my story, hoping a personal trainer will kickstart me off in a positive way.
I do many things that help me including my involvement in Second Chants an adult show choir.
Keeping active, volunteering and working with adolescents all keep me positive and healthy. It is never too late to start something new, so keep moving forward as we all journey through this pandemic in the best way possible.
I love lacrosse! Thanks to my past team mates Jane Walsh and Elaine McMullin Descoteaux for inviting me to do a keynote for female national box lacrosse championship players in 2017. It was an opportunity for me to give back and share my love of the sport. Lacrosse always has been my most favourite sport of the many that I have played.
I started playing lacrosse around 47 years ago (yes, females played lacrosse back then) in Shannon Park Wallis Heights with coaches Cliff Friesen and Donald Koharski. I have so many great memories of those days, We were lucky enough to play lacrosse in Ontario ,the CNE and in Vancouver, We went on to win the NS championships in 1973, so many fun memories.
Today I am a registered Psychologist, I was an educator for the past 40 years and I retired as a School Counsellor in a self- directed High School in Calgary three years ago this June.
None of that would have been possible without lacrosse. In 1976 I was awarded a lacrosse Scholarship from Canada Fitness and Amateur Sport . It paid for most of my University Education. I am so, so grateful for that today!
Lacrosse shaped my future.
I stopped playing lacrosse a year ago, but would play drop in if it were still on today. I joined again as an adult in 2008 and loved every moment. I am 61 years old and I played for the Calgary Women’s Master Lacrosse league until I was 60. I can’t run …. but boy can I shoot Tracy Klusky past captain of the Calgary Roughnecks once told me I had golden hands! I’m also really good at being a cherry picker …
Here is a video I put together a while back about the love of the game.
I hope all young lacrosse players think about these 5 things
Find your purpose
Play for the love of the sport , play for a lifetime
Be Passionate
Persevere
Pay it Forward
Find your purpose and be the leader you can be. You can be a leader on and off the floor. I would like to encourage young women worldwide to play this great sport!!!! Not only young women, but moms too. Yes, and dad’s too.
If there isn’t a team where you live START ONE . If there isn’t a scholarship to be found CREATE ONE or find someone who can. We live in a world where social media CAN be used for good SO DO IT be a good digital citizen and connect with others who want the best for young women in sports.
Did you know that 44% of girls between the ages of 3-17 don’t participate in sports? 84% of adult women don’t participate in sports at all. WE CAN CHANGE that stat TODAY. For those of you playing, you are the lucky ones because you get to play the greatest game on earth. So get out there PROMOTE this great game. YOU CAN BE A LEADER. According to Anita Franklin of the IOC “When a young woman athlete triumphs, she has become a role model for her family, her community and even her country” I KNOW YOU CAN TOO!
PLAY FOR THE LOVE OF THE SPORT and do it lifelong IF I CAN … YOU CAN TOO! Play fair , play respectfully and play hard.
BE PASSIONATE and always be kind. Life will give you back tenfold what you have given out.Passionate people according to research are happier and experience greater well being. My passions have afforded me great friendships, lifelong friendships that I treasure to this day. We have had so much fun together because of sport.
PERSEVERE when you persevere in sports and in life you get back up and keep going. Life throws us all challenges. We are all going to make mistakes and that’s OKthat is the way we learn. Lacrosse taught me to never give up!
PAY IT FORWARD you will learn many lessons through lacrosse. You can pay it forward by helping others. Maybe you will coach or volunteer in some capacity or maybe you will find small ways to give back, but make sure you just do it!
ONE PERSON CAN INDEED MAKE A PROFOUND DIFFERENCE that person could be YOU.
OUR NATIONAL SUMMER SPORT IS THE BEST.
I hope you as young women who play lacrosse go out there and make a difference not just in lacrosse, but in life and remember all the things that lacrosse has given you.! Sports helped me become a better human being and i hope some of you who read this will find that sports does that for you too be it lacrosse or any other sport, many of which I have loved and played like lacrosse, ringette, hockey, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and my latest love pickleball.
I hope you just play … it’s great for your overall well being. and it’s just plain fun!
This process of learning has and always will be fun for me, but there is something different about this ETMOOC?
How is it like lacrosse for me?
I am passionate about both
At 54, I am still in the game
The game is not about winning for me
It’s about loving what I am doing
It is about making connections
It’s about learning from young people
It’s about feeling I have something to contribute
It’s about facing fears
It’s about feeling excited about what I am doing
It’s about questioning whether I really should be doing this
It’s about recognizing the value of continuing to do this
It’s about modeling for my own children to not quit and finding things in life that continue to bring me joy
It’s about making mistakes and learning to laugh at myself
It’s about trying new things
It’s about letting loose, like in a lip dub or trying an old move like I used to when I was a young lacrosse player and realizing that I can still do it!
Do the comments people make on a blog or in lacrosse really matter? Yes, and no. I have to admit I loved it when the past captain of the Calgary Roughnecks, Tracey Kelusky told me I had “golden hands”. I was thrilled. It was an ego boost, especially for someone my age. I can’t run for beans, but I have golden hands (that was few years ago he said that, but it still brings me some joy.) When Andrew McBride, the present captain would ask me to show the much younger ladies how to shoot or pass, yes inside, I beamed with pride.
Or when someone encourages me by commenting on my post, I also have to admit I like that. However, I also recognize that few people may even read or will comment on my posts or might even say non-encouraging comments at some point, but that does not discourage me. I am doing this for me, nobody else. It is about me being reflective, and what I can learn.
I continue to learn as an adult. A few years ago, I took guitar lessons and my teacher told me “I was his most dedicated student who learned so little.”
This is not something I would recommend any teacher say. Did it devastate me? NO, I can actually laugh at that comment as an adult . However, I still have not learned to play guitar. Will I? Yes. Will I do it in a visible way? NO, not like some of my colleagues in ETMOOC , but I will not give up. I will play guitar some day.
However, learning the guitar is not a passion for me like lacrosse or all of the things I am learning about in ETMOOC. I will learn a lot from many of the things and a little from some things. I can take what I like and leave the rest. It is up to me.
For now, the best thing so far about learning is making the connections to my own life as well as making connections in the virtual world that lead to connections in the real world.
I love learning and I love learning the ETMOOC way.Yes indeed, learning and lacrosse they do go together perfectly! I can’t wait for the next ETMOOC lesson and I can’t wait for lacrosse season to start.
Counsellor Talk : Creative Collaborative Connections 