Montreal Alliance | Rose-Anne Joly has risen through the ranks

A year ago, Rose-Anne Joly was preparing to return from an eight-month stay in Dubai, where she was coach and operations coordinator for the NBA basketball school.

Katherine Harvey Pinard
The Press

Before her return, she took part in the podcast They shine, hosted by Geneviève Tardif. Two weeks earlier, the director of operations of the Alliance of Montreal, Annie Larouche, had also participated.

“I listened to her and I learned that Annie had been named director of operations for the Alliance de Montréal,” says Joly. I thought that was really cool, so I messaged her on Facebook congratulating her.

“She responded to me saying, ‘It’s funny because I wanted to communicate with you. Several people told me to throw you,’” she says.

The two women, both new ambassadors for Northern Baller Apparel, then crossed paths by chance during a photo shoot, when they had already planned to meet the following week. “We looked at each other laughing, remembers Joly. Life does things funny sometimes. It connected. »

Last June, Joly was offered the position of interim head coach of the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, which she accepted, while Larouche continued to build the new basketball franchise. Montrealer. The latter did not hire its general manager, Joel Anthony, until December. A month later, Joly reiterated to Larouche his interest in joining the Alliance.

“She forwarded my CV to Joel Anthony and I think he liked what he saw. We called, then I spoke with Vincent Lavandier [l’entraîneur-chef]. »

He obviously liked what he saw, too, because Joly was named assistant coach, head of player development and data analysis for the Alliance on Wednesday. This will be a first professional experience for the Gatineau resident.

From player to coach

When a knee injury forced her to end her playing career with the Gee-Gees in 2010, Rose-Anne Joly experienced “tremendous grief”. It took her a long time to mentally recover from this “change of life” that she was not ready to face.

As a true enthusiast, she started volunteering in the basketball community. And she was quick to turn to the coachingwhich she had already practiced for several years with the basketball team at her high school in Gatineau.

“At that point, I thought I was going to be a volunteer for the rest of my life, coaching community teams in high school and everything,” she says. […] There wasn’t a lot of female representation when I was growing up and I didn’t feel like it was something you could do full time in Canada. »

The 32-year-old rose through the ranks one step at a time. She first went to New Frontiers College, in Division 1, from 2010 to 2016. She then served as a volunteer assistant coach for the Gee-Gees, before becoming a senior assistant coach in 2017.

“I like the human side, knowing that I am supporting student-athletes, and that not only do I offer them my knowledge on the field, but I can also direct them when they have problems at school or in their lives. personal,” she explains.

In 2018, Joly was one of eight finalists for the Wayne & Theresa Embry Fellowship of the Toronto Raptors, a contest that gives two people the chance to gain paid experience in a professional basketball environment. She didn’t win, but she made contacts. Who says contacts says opportunities.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the Gatineau resident reconnected with Dawn Smyth, who works in NBA international relations. Smyth offered her the job of being a coach and operations coordinator for the NBA basketball school in Dubai. Joly jumped at this opportunity to experience “something different”. From September 2020 to April 2021, she worked to grow basketball in the Middle East.

“I loved the experience,” she says. An experience that also made her realize how important the community was to her.

“I’m really proud to be from Quebec. I realized that it was really difficult, at 31, to build new relationships and start from scratch. I had a feeling that there were things I hadn’t finished in Gatineau. I wanted to have a bigger impact. »

She therefore accepted the position of interim head coach of the Gee-Gees, replacing Andy Sparks, last June.

Dual role

Although she will move to Montreal in May to spend the summer with the Alliance, Rose-Anne Joly plans to stay with the Gee-Gees. She hopes that the University of Ottawa will make her its official head coach in the coming weeks.

When asked if her ultimate goal is to one day coach in the NBA, Joly hesitates.

“Right now, I’m really focused on getting the job at the University of Ottawa. I truly believe in Canadian sport. Next summer, [avec l’Alliance]I really see it as professional development because I will be surrounded by coaches who have a lot of knowledge.

“I don’t want to close doors, but at the same time, I believe in university sport in Canada and in women’s sport,” she said.