Carter-Smith, a former Canadian track champion, says this vision is not aimed merely at promoting the individual, and neither is it simply a matter of networking. Her approach to sporting is truly spiritual.

“I feel it, I live it, I sense it,” she said.

The good of Catholic sporting happens when players show openness and trust both with one’s peers and superiors. Carter-Smith says playing against a better team is a learning experience. Her open attitude extends to on-field conflict.

“The referees are not our enemies. They are there to keep order and make sure we don’t get hurt. They can be teachers too.”

Here, especially, she stresses the importance of growth and self-improvement.

“The moment the game is over, you have to ask ‘what have we learned from that?’ ”

In this respect, Carter-Smith prides herself in treating sports as an education.

“Those lessons are no different than what we learn in classes.”

On and off the field, athletes learn the importance of “fairness, integrity and sportsmanship” from their coach-mentors.

“Sometimes coaches blame the kids for not winning, when we really need to look at ourselves. What are we showing our kids?” she said.

In her work as an educator, “dialogue between teachers has always been important, even regarding discipline styles.” For Carter-Smith, the educator needs constant improvement and so they too need mentors.

After beginning her teaching career at the elementary level, her first high school job was at Hamilton’s Bishop Ryan High School, teaching and coaching girls’ basketball. There she worked alongside Fr. Ronald Cote, who was then principal. A family friend, Cote was her “guiding light personally and professionally.” Now a 79-year-old retired priest, he still laughs about their “mutual admiration society.”

“Her Bishop Ryan days were the golden days. It is astounding what she did at our school,” Cote said. “She turned the girls’ phys-ed around, raising their sports to a level they had never even dreamed of before.”

Carter-Smith says they won more than 100 basketball games and pins their success on the Catholic spirit of communication.

 “I would send anyone with a technical foul to my end of the bench. Our kids must be open to learn right then.”

Carter-Smith has spoken at Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board functions and received awards in honour of her work at Bishop Ryan.

Patrick Daly, chairperson of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, was a student at Bishop Ryan when Fr. Cote was principal and Carter-Smith taught and coached there. Daly “admired her passion for sharing sports with young people.” In a time when bad sporting examples abound, “coaches like Cecelia are more important now than ever.”

(Kupferschmidt, 22, is a Philosophy student at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario.)