TORONTO, ON – November 11th, 2021 – The Ontario Lacrosse Association (OLA) is proud to announce its first Community Development (Box Sector) Coaching Certification Clinic that is specifically dedicated to certifying women coaches for the upcoming season.
This coaching clinic certification opportunity is scheduled to take place on the evenings (6pm–9pm) of November 24th and 25th at Children’s Arena in Oshawa, ON, and is open to women coaches of all skill and experience levels who are interested in coaching OLA box lacrosse in 2022. Current coaching data indicates that women are under-represented as coaches at the provincial level across all sports. The Coaching Association of Canada reported that, of the individuals who identified taking a National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) course and recording it within The Locker (the dedicated online certification tracking system) in 2019, only 34% were women, compared to 66% men and 0.1% of another gender.
With the caveat that these numbers do not include any non-NCCP training entered in The Locker or any training undertaken outside of the Coaching Association of Canada, there is an obvious gap in rates of training for women compared to men. All sports organizations have a responsibility to challenge the status quo, combat biases in the coaching pathway, and foster an inclusive culture in sport to actively advance gender equity in coaching.
While creating programs to help prepare women for coaching and leadership roles within sport, the OLA recognizes the need to be more inclusive so that it appeals to and retains female coaches. The purpose of organizing a coaching clinic specifically for women is to create a space for prospective coaches to becoming involved in the Ontario Lacrosse coaching community, with two specific goals in mind: First, this opportunity will improve recruitment and retention of women lacrosse coaches, and lead to a higher level of satisfaction of those involved.
By increasing opportunities to recruit more women and a broader base of participants from which to draw candidates to fulfill club activities or roles, the OLA hopes to establish new and innovative approaches to coaching, training, and team operations. Second, increasing the number of women coaches will create a positive and inspiring environment for the participation of women and girls who play box lacrosse, decrease the drop-out rate of women and girls who played previously, and lead to new opportunities for a wider range of potential female participants in all capacities, some of whom may have felt excluded in the past.
This session is the first of what will be a series of women-centered coaching certification clinics specifically dedicated to developing and training women box lacrosse coaches across Ontario. The dates, times and locations of future clinics will be announced soon, and will work to flexibly accommodate the schedules of as many participants as possible.
The deadline to register to attend is November 19th, 2021 at 11:59pm. Participants must be fully vaccinated and government-mandated COVID-19 protocols will be followed. The cost of the clinic has been lowered.
