Athletic Lives of Distinction - M - Z
S - Z
Wright, Lindsay '97 - Field Hockey
Lindsay Wright from the Class of 1997 was quick to mention the impact of her coaches, not only on her teenage self, but well into her adult life and career. Track coach Maggie Swan, and, in particular, Coach Nancy Drope, have had lasting impacts on her life. Coach Drope recruited her for field hockey, a game she had never played before, during her first week at Ridley. And the rest, as they say, is history. “Since then,” she notes, “field hockey has been the vehicle for my education and career.” While at Ridley she was Field Hockey captain and MVP, leading the team to SOSSA and OFSSA championships. She captained First Girls hockey, played varsity tennis, earned medals at Schoolboy and Stotesbury with her rowing crews, excelled at Harriers and track and field. Not surprisingly, she was named Female Athlete of the Year in 1997. Upon graduation from Ridley, she headed to Northwestern University, where she was high-scorer, captain and team MVP for varsity Field Hockey. She received the Alfred S. Wiltberger Scholarship for outstanding service to athletics and contributions of inspiration, leadership and allegiance to the university in 2001. Not surprisingly, she chose to pay forward the benefits and opportunities sport had afforded her by becoming a teacher and coach at such prestigious institutions as St. Andrew’s School in Delaware and the International School of Boston.
“Regarding lessons learned from sports: in addition to the usual discipline, leadership, teamwork and resilience, I benefitted greatly from stellar female athletic coaching role models. My master’s degree thesis at Dartmouth College, ‘Female Athletic College Coaches and Motherhood,’ attests to that. I have tried to transmit their knowledge, strategies and attitudes and that of my own experience to the hundreds of young athletes I have coached in my career.”
P.O. Box 3013, 2 Ridley Road St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 7C3 Canada 905 684 1889
With more than 700 students from 60 countries, the largest boarding programme in Ontario and the third largest in Canada, Ridley College is a truly international, co-educational, day and boarding school of the world that prepares students for the world. It has provided enriching learning and life-shaping experiences focused on the arts, academics, and athletics since 1889. Ridley’s Lower School offers JK-Grade 8, its Upper School consists of Grade 9-PG, and Ridley graduates attend some of the top universities and colleges around the world. Ridley is the only co-ed independent boarding school in Canada and one of only three in North America authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum programme.
