The life journey of Mary Collinson begins in southwestern Ontario, born in Exeter but growing up in Chatham, where her love of sport was most nurtured in her youth.

These days, comfortably retired from her career as an educator, she calls Sarnia home, sharing the city with her recently-engaged daughter, Kristine – while son Andrew continues to work and live in Toronto.

And while her connection to that part of the province might well have come full circle, the truth is that the north, in general, and Sudbury, far more specifically, is where Collinson would establish herself in the coaching ranks, typically with basketball and track and field, and almost always with her long-time spouse, Mitch Lalonde, at her side.

(sadly, Lalonde passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly and far too young in the summer of 2018)

“I loved raising our family in Sudbury,” said Collinson earlier this week, her 63rd birthday now behind her. “I felt so honoured and humbled just to be part of a bigger community there. There are so many people that did so much for kids, in every sport. I felt very privileged to be part of that.”

With just her mom and her twin sister on the home front, Collinson turned to athletic involvement from a relatively early age. “It was fun, it was exhilarating – it gave me a sense of pride.”

It was also a large part of the intertwined basketball story that would take her to Lakehead University in 1976, the same year that love struck and that Collinson moved in with the man she loved, at the tender age of 18.

“From that point on, it was Mary and Mitch, Mitch and Mary,” she said with a laugh. “It went from there. Mitch was often the head coach and I was the assistant, but it really was more of co-coaches, like when you have a good cop / bad cop. It was a combination that I truly believe worked so well.”

The Lalonde-Collinson era kicked off in 1979 at Sudbury Secondary School, at that time still a bustling metropolis of slightly less than two thousand students or so, a multitude of naturally athletic teenagers among them.

The late Peter Ennis had started the ball rolling, taking his basketball genius to Laurentian University just as the new tandem hit the home of the North Stars.

Collinson recalled so many facets of that time, ranging from the attraction of working with the inner city kids – “the work ethic of those first generation (Canadian) kids was phenomenal; you didn’t have to convince a kid to work hard” – to the inherent benefits of five years of high school – “you were able to put some time into making sure that every athlete reached their potential”.

And, of course, there was the issue of being somewhat of a trailblazer - at least in those days.

“There weren’t many women coaching males and trust me, it was interesting,” said Collinson. “I had times when boys from other teams wouldn’t shake my hand.” While her start at Sudbury Secondary may have veered in the direction of the boys’ teams initially, it wasn’t long before she and Mitch migrated towards the fairer sex.

“As a woman, I felt that I wanted to be a mentor for young females,” she explained. “Women needed good strong female role models to look up to, and by no means am I saying that I am it. All I am saying is that I think I could try and help lift these young females. I pushed them; I wanted you to challenge yourself.”

Most often associated with basketball coaching, Collinson (and Lalonde, for that matter) were almost equally as passionate about their involvement in track and field, Mary an accomplished long jumper in her teens. The Sudbury Secondary School of the eighties would serve their purposes nicely.

“I remember so many good times,” she said. “The administration was always so supportive. We had a winter circuit in the hallways and Sudbury Secondary was big enough that the circuit was 300 metres or more, with stairs and halls. We had some amazing athletes. To win city track and field championships, you had to have over 100 athletes and you had to start things up in January/February.”

“We could do that back then.”

While the first decade of success centered around the downtown institution which merged together Sudbury High and Sheridan Technical School, the final two decades or so would see banners aplenty hanging from the rafters of Lasalle Secondary School.

To be sure, Collinson was born with (or perhaps developed) an inner competitiveness, one which produced accolades and championships in equal proportion. Yet for as much as she preferred to come out on the winning end of the multitude of high-school basketball battles, her greater respect is doled out to those kindred spirits whose commitment to coaching so mirrored her own.

The names could fill an entire daily publication. And while this will do little justice to the far greater number that are omitted, there was a little extra tweak of nostalgic blissfulness as Collinson recalled the likes of Dino Del Ben and Gary Orasi, of Chuck Todhunter and Doug Mackay, of Irene Brisson and Anna Barsanti, of Rod McHugh and Bill Morris, of Bill Sherman and Len Thompson.

Basketball may have often grabbed the spotlight in her life, but Collinson preached the teachings of multi-sport participation, especially in those formative years, with both Andrew and Kristine seeing plenty of action in hockey and soccer, introduced to swimming and gymnastics.

“Back then, kids were all around athletes a lot more,” she said. “We need to make sure that our kids have that body awareness. Swimming is important as both a vital sport and necessary life skill. I think that you need to develop the athlete, and not just the sport-specific athlete.”

At the heart of nostalgia lies the notion that it serves to stir those inner emotions. Collinson was certainly not immune to those feelings, as our chat lingered well past an hour. In the end, however, there is a very soothing comfort level with how it all came together, an inner peace as she looks back on her journey.

“I think that you are measured not only by who you are, as a person, but also by what you contribute,” she said. “In life, you need to be able to find your gift and share it. For both Mitch and I, our passion was coaching, our passion was reaching young people.”

For that, Sudbury will forever be grateful to have filled the role as the connecting strand to southwestern Ontario as the pathway of the life of Mary Collinson continues to unveil itself.