Jean Price is a woman who truly changed the world of women's sports.
Her legacy will live on and her death sparks us remembering how truly remarkable she was. She was a true female athlete before female athletes were respected and accepted, and she helped to mold dozens of other female athletes and female athletic programs. She began as a child athlete and progressed to a well-respected and successful coach in female athletics.
Jean Price spent 30 years teaching chemistry and physical education. In addition to this, she also coached high school sports. She also spent two years coaching basketball on the university level prior to her high school career.
"She was an early pioneer of women in sports in this area," said Allan McCulley, Price's cousin. "She was always coaching teams and they would reach the inter-provincial level. I know she and her father golfed and curled ... certainly, within the athletic community, she was a torchbearer, a forerunner of the explosion of women's athletics nowadays."
Price was always involved in sports. When she was not playing, she was supporting other athletes. She was considered the "greatest cheerleader" among friends and family and attended as many sporting events as her schedule allowed for her nieces, nephews and their children. She continued to attend these sporting events up until a year before her death. She was truly dedicated.
In terms of her own career, she won her first coaching championship in 1958. "In high school, she coached the junior girls volleyball team at Eastwood Collegiate Institute to their first Central West Ontario Secondary School Association (CWOSSA) championship against Kitchener Collegiate Institute in 1958," reports The Record.
Price battled cancer for four years and battled it with the same intensity that she took on sports. She lost her battle at age 84, but never stopped fighting.
Jean Price has been and will always be a role model of mine. She took the world of female athletics and helped to put it on the map. Because of women like her, girls like me were able to not only play sports, but able to play on the boys soccer team in high school.
R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen is a former competitive athlete, current coach and has an educational background in health, fitness and medicine. When she isn't catching up on the latest games or writing about the latest news, she can be found on the court or field improving her own game. Follow Rose on Twitter @Rose_Kitchen.
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