A basketball life: How Rose-Anne Joly climbed the ranks to join Alliance coaching staff in CEBL

The early comparisons to Canadian basketball icon Steve Nash were a good omen for Rose-Anne Joly’s basketball career – but she’s made the journey truly her own.

From her playing days in school and university, to a career-ending injury, to coaching at home and abroad, Joly found refuge in the game and has lived and breathed basketball for as long as she can remember.

Now the 32-year-old from Aylmer, Que., is the assistant coach of the Montreal Alliance – the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s newest franchise.

“In that small community, basketball was very important,” said Joly. “So I started playing very young.”

Joly is navigating coaching in the professional basketball world alongside head coach Vincent Lavandier. She’s also in charge of player development and data analysis for the Alliance.

She is among a handful of women’s coaches in professional basketball. Chantal Vallée became the CEBL’s first-ever coach in 2018.

“Even growing up I had no idea about the WNBA,” said Joly. “I had no idea about professional sports for women.”

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On the court, it was clear early on that Joly was quite skilled.

“I was compared to Steve Nash a couple times because I was a point guard, I was a good passer, I could shoot threes,” Joly recounted. “But then later on, I was compared to Sue Bird. And at that point, I didn’t even know who Sue Bird was.”

Joly’s parents said she always showed a strong work ethic and determination.

“She was really dynamic when she was young,” said her father Alain Joly. “She always showed up before everyone else. And when practice was over, sometimes she would stay another 45 minutes.

“It was really her favourite sport. It’s really what she wanted to do.”

“If she starts something, there’s not much that’s going to stop her,” added her mother Fabienne Joly. “Very passionate.”

Joly played through university until she tore her ACL, effectively ending her career as an athlete.

But that opened another door for her: coaching, even though Joly says it wasn’t something she really ever considered.

“I didn’t know that I was going to become a full-time coach, ever,” she said. “Growing up, I was never coached by women.”

2019-2020 Wayne Embry Fellowship Finalist pic.twitter.com/2sdV08MtTp

— Rose-Anne Joly (@joly_roseanne) October 7, 2019

First she was a finalist for the Wayne and Theresa Embry Raptors fellowship. Then came Dubai, where she worked in player development with the NBA academy to help grow the sport in the Middle East.

When she returned in 2021, she became the head coach for the women’s uOttawa Gee-Gees in USports. It’s a position she still holds, despite her position with the CEBL’s Alliance.

Beyond excited and thankful to come back home and have the honour to coach the @GeeGeesWBB program this year ????
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Extrêmement Heureuse et reconnaissante de revenir à la maison et d’avoir l’honneur d’entraîner le programme @GeeGeesWBB cette année ????
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— Rose-Anne Joly (@joly_roseanne) June 25, 2021

“I knew I wanted to coach as a volunteer but not as a head coach, and here I am today,” she said.

“The main topic that would come back from country to country, it’s really the involvement of women, especially in coaching.”

Joly describes herself as an open-minded coach who values listening and provides a safe environment for her players.

She is also the president and founder of Basket Plus, a non-profit organization that provides opportunities for university sports teams to get involved in community-driven initiatives.

Basket Plus has helped build a basketball court in Togo and a sports complex in Haiti.

Mission accomplished! After 6 months of hard work and $12,000 raised by the @geegees_wbball; a new basketball court was built in Vogan, Togo to support this amazing organization @lysd_project pic.twitter.com/LLsaiOcry4

— Rose-Anne Joly (@joly_roseanne) April 30, 2018

“Sports is very important for me,” said Joly. “I see the impact in the community. That’s why I started Basket Plus, because I can see how impactful and how important playing, practising a sport, being involved, being surrounded by other young kids and being mentored as well by coaches.

“That’s what I tried to do that at the University of Ottawa this year, and it worked.”