Jim Calder became the Varsity Blues women's lacrosse head coach in May, 2018.
To say that Calder has been active in the world of lacrosse would be an understatement. He joins the Blues with five decades of experience in managing, playing and coaching Canada’s national sport.
He has served on the Ontario Women’s Field Lacrosse (OWFL) executive committee for four seasons, having pioneered the sport in Toronto at both the club and high school levels. Calder founded both the Toronto Stars Girls Field Lacosse club program, where he coached for seven seasons, as well as the Birchmount Park Collegiate team, guiding them to seven City of Toronto championship titles. Under his leadership, girl’s lacrosse in the Toronto District School Board has grown from three to 12 teams in the last eight years.
At the intercollegiate level, Calder served as an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts and went onto play and coach in Melbourne at the club level. He founded and coached the Toronto Lacrosse Club as well.
He was a member of the management team that launched the Toronto Rock into the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and is a co-author of two books: ‘Lacrosse – the Ancient Game’ and ‘Women Play Lacrosse – A History of the International Field Game.’
As a player, Calder played for the Hobart Statesmen, where he was a two-time all-American, Hall of Fame inductee, and a member of two national championship teams. He also represented Canada at both the 1978 and 1982 world championships, helping Canada to gold in 1978. As a member of that team, Calder was inducted into both the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
