Jim Calder got his start in the world of Girls & Womens Lacrosse when he brought his daughters out to the Toronto Stars’ house league box program and became involved as a volunteer coach and became more involved with the rep program. .
The former Team Canada field player and Hobart College All-American brought his experience from past lacrosse leadership roles (Toronto Lacrosse Club and Toronto Rock Lacrosse) to bring more structure to girls’ box, organizing parents and volunteers to help expand the girls’ program and bring opportunities for other young athletes to try out the sport in a no-pressure, no-contact setting.
.
As numbers began to dwindle in local girls’ box lacrosse leagues, he saw the opportunity for Stars girls to make a switch to field lacrosse, organizing team bus trips to the US to find exhibition competition and to expose the Stars girls to live gameplay before officially joining the OWL (now OWFL) as a team in summer 2008.
.
From there, he worked to secure field space and coaches from University of Toronto’s varsity program, helping Toronto’s newest local field program grow and adapt to the many features required to run a competitive club program in Ontario.
.
By the time his eldest daughter was wrapping up her U-19 career, he had managed to grow the sport in other parts of the city, supporting the recruitment of volunteers and equipment lending to get the TDSB high school league going, and working with Toronto Beaches volunteers to start house league opportunities for younger girls to get involved in lacrosse in addition to the U-15 and U-19 Stars rep teams.
.
At the peak of their tenure as a team, that first group of Stars players managed to secure a 4th place finish in the u-19 A division, with a narrow one-goal loss to Orangeville in the bronze medal game.
.
Though the Stars programs have since merged into the Beaches as a larger club, they provided a solid foundation for today’s coaches, facilities, and exposure for the Beaches girls’ program – many former Stars players and fields are still core parts of the Beaches program today.
.
Without the many hours of work and networking that Jim put into building the club, none of this would have been possible!
