Fred Blowes celebrated for growing lacrosse
The first in a series profiling the 2024 Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame induction class to be honoured June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Memorial Centre. Today’s subject is Fred Blowes, who will be inducted as a builder for women’s lacrosse.
Women’s and girls’ lacrosse exists and flourishes in Peterborough for one simple reason — Fred Blowes.
There was virtually no girls’ lacrosse in Peterborough prior to 1987, when Blowes, born in London, Ont. and raised in Stratford, moved here to teach at Lakefield District Secondary School (LDSS). Blowes started coaching boys under the mentorship of LDSS principal and lacrosse Hall of Famer Bobby Allan.
Blowes said girls at LDSS expressed an interest in playing lacrosse so he and colleague Deb O’Grady put together a team that played in tournaments and did quite well. Over the next few years, other local schools started fielding teams and the Kawartha high school league was born with other former lacrosse stars like Jimmy Watson at Adam Scott Collegiate and Kerri Hardill at Thomas A. Stewart coaching.
Bringing along some of those Lakefield girls, Blowes founded and coached the Kawartha Women’s Field Lacrosse (KWFL) club in 1997, which began as a U20 team competing in the Ontario Women’s Lacrosse League. They went undefeated in winning the provincial title. The club has grown over the years with the addition of U9/11/13/ 15/19 and senior rep teams, as well as house league.
He coached the U19 team to provincial gold in 1998, 1999 and 2002, and Ontario Summer Games gold in 1998 and 2002. He coached the Kawartha senior team to gold in 2019. Blowes was named Ontario Women’s Field Lacrosse coach of the year in 1998, 2002, 2008, 2010 and 2011.
Many players from the KWFL club have gone on to success at the provincial, national, international, Ontario university and NCAA level. More than 40 players have received NCAA scholarships and 11 have represented Canada at U19 and/or senior world championships.
“It all started from girls at Lakefield high school who wanted to play lacrosse like all the boys,” said Blowes, 64.
Blowes was instrumental in bringing two world women’s field lacrosse championships to Peterborough — in 2007 (11 countries) and 2019 (24 countries). He was appointed by the Canadian Lacrosse Association to co-chair both U19 championships.
“There are so many countries playing now and I’m really proud of that,” said Blowes.
“The Peterborough community are lacrosse and sports enthusiasts and they came out in full support either as volunteers or filling the stands. It was just a wonderful sight to see at both Trent University and Fleming College. Those two events are a highlight for sure.”
He co-chaired committees for the 2019 U19 Canadian championships, OWFL U15 championships, and both the U15 and U18 world lacrosse festivals, with 24 teams from Canada, Wales, England, Israel and the U.S. The event, held in Peterborough, was attended by more than 1,800 female athletes.
His 37 year career as a local high school coach at LDSS and Kenner Collegiate included both boys’ and girls’ field lacrosse and basketball. He has chaired OFSAA boys’ basketball championships at Lakefield and two girls’ Ontario high school Provincial Cups while at Kenner. He coached many teams to Kawartha and COSSA championships, including the Lakefield Tigers boys’ lacrosse team to four Ontario high school B championships and the Kenner Rams senior boys’ basketball team to an OFSAA A silver medal in 2024. He continues to coach despite retiring from teaching.
“I just love what I did every day. I loved going to school and working with young people and coaching young people,” he said.
Blowes said he’s humbled to be entering the Hall of Fame.
“There is such a rich history of athletes and builders and I’m really honoured to be inducted with these great people,” he said.