A standout student athlete and graduate of MRSS in 1989, Lesley transferred from Douglas College to SFU, and she had an immediate impact, becoming one of the team's leaders and starting catcher. Lesley was named to Canada's Junior National Team while a student at SFU in 1992. She earned NAIA All-District honours her final three seasons in university and she was team captain as a junior and senior. As a senior, she led SFU to its first appearance at the NAIA Championships in 1995. Lesley went on to compete for Canada at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
After college sports, Lesley became a teacher in her Maple Ridge. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she stepped up to coach multiple sport teams (Softball, Basketball, and Hockey) in the community and within the school. Lesley has been a coach for many softball (and baseball) teams, the SRT Girls Basketball Team(s), and in 2018-2019 was instrumental in helping SD42 team up with Pacific Rim Hockey Academy, to offer a specialized hockey program that balances educational requirements with the development of hockey skills twice a week at SRT. Over the years, several of Lesley’s student athletes have gone on to post-secondary school, receiving scholarships within their given sport.
Lesley currently leads a Physical Education Leadership class at Samuel Robertson Technical (SRT) which empowers students to learn and grow their skills to later become involved in the sport world. She has also held the position of Athletic Director at the school, which speaks to her keen desire in wanting the make sure quality opportunities are available for the next generation of student athletes. We reached out to a few of Lesley’s peers, some of the parents of the athletes that she has coached, and a current Team Canada/Olympic softball athlete to share some narratives that paint a broader picture of who Lesley is.
“Lesley has been an inspirational and dedicated educator, leader and coach in our school district and community for the last 25 years. Following her participation in the Sydney Olympics in Softball she has coached every season (Fall, Winter and Spring) at MRSS and more recently SRT. She has inspired the kids she has coached, and above all, always focused on teaching skills, team play and the values of sportsmanship and fair play. She has been a leader in our schools and community serving as president of our school district athletics association, and always advocating for opportunities for kids to participate and compete in sports.”
“Lesley has done amazing things in female sport. Not only as an Olympic athlete herself, but as a role model and coach for so many young girls! I had the privilege of starting to coach softball with her 4 years ago and watched her coach my daughter in hockey and recently grade 8 girls basketball (where the SRT girls made provincials for the first time in over 15 years) as well. She is a true advocate for hiring/promoting female coaches in sport. Her belief is that female athletes should have the opportunity to have female role models/coaches/mentors in very male dominated athletic landscapes. Her knowledge of the sport far surpasses any other coaches I have worked with. Her patience, dedication, and passion for developing young female athletes is unmatched within the softball community. Currently we have a player on our Pride 2010 team who lives in Chilliwack but makes the drive to Maple Ridge to play with us because Les is the coach!! (We got bronze in Provincials today and are first year U15’s - that is a huge accomplishment). She’s currently one of our Rep managers for the RMMSA association which adds additional volunteer time to her already crazy schedule. I honestly don’t know how she does it!”
“She’s ALWAYS so positive with the teams and in my opinion knows exactly what to say in the pre and post game chat. She’s in tune with what motivates athletes in 2024 and not what may have been the “old school” way of pushing the girls to better themselves at their sport. She truly wants all the girls to look back on their time in whichever sport they play with fond competitive memories and try to pay it forward by working with the next generation to come.”
“I’ve known who Lesley was since I was in elementary school. I remember walking down the halls of my elementary school (Yennadon) and stopping to look at the hometown hero posters, spending extra time looking at hers and feeling motivated to one day be on a poster just like her. I had never met her, but I already looked up to her. Later in my softball career I attended a softball camp put on by Lesley. It was one of the only softball camps I participated in, and we received a t-shirt that said catch23 that I kept for years! Knowing she was a catcher like me and from my hometown was even more inspiring. The camp was a lot of fun!
Over 10 years later, and I found myself being inducted as a hometown hero. The banquet was held at my high school (Maple Ridge Secondary) and I remember seeing Lesley standing in the crowd. Her being in attendance made that moment so much more special I couldn’t believe she would take time out of her day to be there and congratulate me. It was a full circle moment and one that left a big impact on me!”
I feel very grateful to have had such a tremendous role model to look up to in the community. Her positive energy as a person and a coach undoubtedly has inspired many young girls like myself and can’t think of anyone better to be receiving this award. Congratulations Lesley and thank you for all you have done for me and so many other young girls!
