Joly named head coach of University of Ottawa’s women’s basketball team

After serving a season in an interim role, Rose-Anne Joly has been named the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s basketball team’s head coach and program manager.

In her first season in charge, the Gee-Gees posted a 10-4 conference and a 15-6 overall record, and were ranked in the national top 10 for six straight weeks to start the regular season.

“It’s a special opportunity to become a head coach in your hometown and to continue the work that has been put in place in the last few years,” said Joly.

Before last season, Joly spent four years on the uOttawa coaching staff, first as a volunteer assistant coach, before becoming the program’s full-time lead assistant coach from 2017 to 2020.

Last month, it was announced Joly would join the coaching staff of the CEBL’s Montreal Alliance for the summer, being named an assistant coach in charge of player development and data analysis. Before returning to the Gee- Gees, Joly, who’s from Gatineau, served as coach and operations co-ordinator of the NBA Basketball School in Dubai.

Joly played one year for the GeeGees in 2009-10 before a knee injury put an end to her competitive playing career.

Joly is the president and founder of Basket Plus, a non-profit that supports young people living in poverty by building more resilient communities through strategic partnerships between varsity teams, the private sector and local non-governmental organizations. In 2018, Joly led the effort to build an outdoor basketball court in Togo, and in 2019, a sports complex in Haiti, all with the help of the Gee-Gees women’s basketball program.