The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team won the their first Critelli Cup on March 4 to claim the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships. But what’s behind the trophy’s name?
The OUA named the trophy in 2016 after Chris Critelli, a former long-time coach of the Brock Badgers women’s basketball team and current assistant athletic director.
“I’ve realized that I’m very gracious and accept it. I’m honoured to have this trophy named after me,” Critelli said. “It’s probably one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me in my life.”
The St. Catharines, Ont. native coached the Badgers for 25 seasons from 1984-2009 and took her team to the playoffs in 22 of them. Critelli was an assistant coach from 1982 to 1984 and also an assistant with Canada’s women’s national team.
Before then, she was a guard on the national team for seven years, joining at 17 years old in 1974 and played in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.
“It’s really the epitome of your career, the apex of your career,” she said. “l loved playing on the national team.”
Critelli said she’s particularly fond of the 1976 Olympics opening ceremony in Montreal.
“Walking around the stadium with everybody cheering was something that is so hard to describe,” she said. “It’s a high like you’d never believe.”
“I felt like I was walking four feet above the ground. It was euphoric,” Critelli said.
Critelli also became the only player ever to win an National Collegiate Athletic Association and Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (now U SPORTS) title when she won with the Old Dominion Lady Monarchs and Laurentian Vees.
Critelli’s coaching career began at Old Dominion for one season before heading to Brock.
“It’s the people,” she said of coaching. “I like that I can help people and I learn from them.”
“I found it a very rewarding occupation,” she said. “Certainly a very time consuming and difficult occupation but definitely very rewarding.”
“When you’re around young people who are energetic and motivated 24/7—hey, I mean, you can’t ask for a better job,” she said.
Critelli acknowledged she’s constantly made adjustments to her coaching style over time.
“You have to change as a coach. You have to stay current,” she said. “I built relationships better as I got older and I prided myself on getting to know my athletes.”
Critelli said women’s basketball has changed drastically with rule changes such as the 24-second shot clock, down from 30 seconds, and the smaller ball.
“Athletes are bigger and stronger, coaches are more demanding, programs are more demanding,” she said. “There’s more finances in the programs and it’s more competitive.”
But Critelli said the fundamentals remain the same.
“You’ll pick up things and learn things but the concepts don’t change,” she said. “If I show my shot and you leave your feet, I’m going to go by you.”
Critelli retired from coaching in 2009 with 393 wins, the most of any Brock coach, and was part of their only Ontario Championship in 1983.
She cited fatigue one of the reasons she chose to retire.
“Everybody has an expiry date, in any job, and I’ve seen coaches get burned out,” Critelli said. “I don’t want to reach my expiry date and I don’t want to have my players or the athletic department fire me.”
Critelli said she’s at peace with her decision and is now writing a book about how coaches influenced her career and life.
“I left happy, I left energized and I felt I went out on a good note,” she said.
“I have no regrets.”
