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Roxanne Curtis

January 29, 2024 by in Inductees

Builder – Lacrosse

Photo Credit: Laura Stanley

Roxanne Curtis is a graduate of LaSalle Secondary School (Kingston) and Queen’s University and has been a resident of Whitby since 1993. She developed a passion for sports at a young age and maintains her enthusiasm today, most notably for the sport of lacrosse.

Roxanne’s remarkable coaching career began in 1989 when she was on the teaching staff at Ajax High School. She moved to Sinclair Secondary School in Whitby in 1994, where she embarked on an illustrious run of success that included nine Lake Ontario Secondary School Athletics (LOSSA) Girls’ Field Lacrosse titles (1997, 2002-2008, and 2010), six LOSSA Silver medals, and four consecutive Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) sanctioned Trillium Cup championships from 2005 to 2008.

Throughout this same time, Roxanne also coached the Ontario U-20 Women’s Field Lacrosse team from 1994 to 2008, winning four consecutive national championships (1995-1998), and she led the Canadian U-19 Women’s Field Lacrosse team to a bronze medal at the 1999 World Championships in Australia. Furthermore, when lacrosse was between seasons, she extended her universal dedication to coaching through more than a decade on the sidelines of basketball courts with the Whitby Wildcats organization as well as 26 years at Sinclair Secondary School, including four trips to OFSAA.

In addition to her extensive commitments as a coach, Roxanne has dedicated a considerable amount of time to a varied range of executive roles and responsibilities in her chosen sport:

  • 1993 Canadian Lacrosse Association Women’s Field National Championship Chairperson
  • 1997 Canadian Lacrosse Association Women’s Field National Championship Committee
  • 1995-2005: Ontario Women’s Field Lacrosse Executive Committee Member
  • 1995-2007: Ontario Women’s Field Lacrosse Tournament Chairperson
  • 1997-2001: LOSSA Executive Committee Member
  • 2007 Women’s Field Lacrosse U-19 World Championship Committee Member
  • 2013 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Cup Volunteer
  • 6-time LOSSA Girls’ Field Lacrosse Chairperson; 3-time OFSAA Championship Chairperson

Furthermore, Roxanne’s influence across the sport is highly evident on the educational side. She has been instrumental in developing coaching programs from local secondary schools to provincial and national levels and has been a Lacrosse Canada Master Coach Developer for coaching certification since 1999. Roxanne is also a contributing author for two instructional guides for the development of lacrosse coaches: the NCCP Community Coach Development Manual and the NCCP Competitive Coach Introduction Manual.

On a personal level, Roxanne was inducted into the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2022 in the Builder category. She retired from teaching in 2020 but continues to share her zest for lacrosse in multiple capacities. She is involved with Lacrosse Canada, as the current Chair of its Coaching committee, and continues to coach, most recently with the Whitby Minor Lacrosse U15 Girls’ Box team. Roxanne also derives great pride that her sons, Kyle and Connor, have entered the world of coaching with Whitby Minor Lacrosse, Oshawa Blue Knights Lacrosse, and Whitby Warriors Jr. C, thereby maintaining and augmenting her family’s contributions to a sport that has provided them countless friendships, ample opportunities for travel, and a healthy lifestyle for many years.

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