Critelli turns the page
Chris Critelli retired from Brock University in August after 35 years. Photos by: BROCK UNIVERSITY
Chris Critelli has been retired for only a couple of months and she’s already got a full lineup of activities on her plate.
The 61-year-old St. Catharines native retired from Brock University at the end of August after 35 years as a coach and assistant athletic director and is having little trouble filling the hours.
If anything, Critelli can’t find enough time to do all the things she would like.
“I am really enjoying it and I can’t imagine I’m going to be bored,” she said. “I have a full day. I get up very early and it seems by 4 or 5 o’clock until dinner I’m pretty busy and doing things.”
Those things amount to everything from writing a book, to golfing and curling at the St. Catharines Golf and Country Club, to getting to know her way around more in the kitchen.
“There are so many things I want to do,” she said. “When I thought about retirement, I thought I can golf all I want, curl all I want and work out, but also I will be able to finish my book. I also want to be able to do things like learn to cook and can and make different soups. Things you just don’t have time to do.
“There are a lot of things I want to learn how to do so that will keep me busy.”
Critelli didn’t have to do much in the way of soul searching when making her big decision.
“Not much, not at all,” she said. “I was surprised. I have a lot of interests, which is good. I heard horror stories about Olympic athletes going into the work force, which is a very difficult transition. I blew by that no problem.
“I have interests and I’m a pretty happy camper no matter where I go in life.”
She did have to take a good look at the books to make sure she could afford to retire.
“The only deliberation one has when retiring — I knew I would be fine doing things — is financially. That is the toughest thing. Can I afford to do this?
“If you can keep life simple, go early. If you want to be extravagant, you probably won’t be able to do it. I felt if I kept things simple I would be able to do this.”
Now that the fall weather is keeping Critelli off the golf course — she is a top-notch senior golfer — she has turned her attention to curling as well as putting the final touches on her book, “That’s My Coach.”
The book is a series of stories about coaches who have touched Critelli’s life during her playing days.
She has gone through at least 10 drafts and is now working on the publishing and marketing side of the project.
“I kept journals as a kid. Since I was 17, my mother told me when I made the national team to keep a journal, so I did,” she said. “I didn’t think I would do anything with them. About 20 years ago I never read. I didn’t enjoy reading. My mom told me if I was going to write a book, I needed to start reading. Then I realized I wanted to write a book.
“I found it fun to do, fun to write. Publishing it is another thing.”
Critelli joined Brock after a distinguished playing career that saw her play in the Olympic Games in 1976 and win three international bronze medals. She is the only player in history to have won both an NCAA and CIS championship.
She joined the Brock women’s basketball team coaching staff under Pat Woodburn in the fall of 1982.
“That was perfect because it gave me an opportunity as an assistant coach to get my feet wet and learn under Woodburn. After that, it was 27 years of coaching and I loved every minute of it,” she said.
After racking up 393 career wins, six divisional titles and an OUA championship, Critelli retired from coaching in 2009, when she was named assistant athletic director.
She was inducted into the halls of fame for Canada Basketball, Ontario Basketball and the City of St. Catharines, and in 2016, Ontario University Athletics renamed its women’s basketball championship trophy the Critelli Cup in her honour.
“That’s a huge highlight of my career. I was so honoured and blown away,” she said. “I never thought in a million years they would name the cup after me.”
While she had no doubt it was time to move on, Critelli said Brock will always have a soft spot in her heart.
“Being a St. Catharines girl and having your career at Brock has been really kind of cool,” she said. “I never thought that would happen. I didn’t think I would be back in St. Catharines and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved every moment at Brock, I really did.
“I have no regrets. It was a fabulous place to be but it was time for me to do something different with my life.”
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