The St-Hubert, Que. native will be inducted into the WBC Hall of Fame this month
Anne Lachance’s love for basketball started in high school. A native of St-Hubert, Que., she continued to play through CEGEP. While at McGill University’s School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, she stayed connected to the game by competing in intramural stand-up basketball.
After graduating from McGill, Lachance wasn’t sure how she’d keep basketball in her life—until she crossed paths with Christian Ratté.
“I couldn’t envision my life without basketball,” Lachance recalled. “I was quite at a loss of how things were going to go without basketball.
“I was working at a camp for kids with disabilities, and he was visiting his girlfriend at the time. I was telling him how I was going to miss basketball, and he was telling me, ‘Well, get involved with wheelchair basketball.”
Following Ratté’s advice, Lachance attended a Gladiateurs practice, expecting to help athletes with rebounding and assist with chair transfers.
“I didn’t go to play – that was the last thing on my mind,” she said. “As soon as I walked into the gym, they welcomed me, gave me a chair, and said, ‘Here we need you to play with us, that’s what we need. We need to have more people on the court so we can have five on five’.”
Lachance went on to spend nearly four years playing wheelchair basketball with both the Gladiateurs and the Zodiacs women’s team.
However, her playing career ended abruptly after a shoulder injury sustained during a Zodiacs’ practice required surgery.
Unable to continue on the court, Lachance made the shift to classification in 1996. Her deep understanding of the game, paired with her professional background as an occupational therapist, made the transition a natural one.
“I always felt my knowledge of wheelchair basketball came from the fact that I had played,” she said. “I think it helped me with my observation skills, but the fact that I had played with my teammates, I had to pass them the ball.
“You can’t pass the same way to a 1.0 as a 4.5. You need to adapt. I think what helped me become a good classifier is the fact that I played. Whenever somebody says, ‘I’d like to be a classifier,’ I say, ‘Fine, do you play? No? Well, that’s your first step. You have to understand the game if you want to be any good at classifying.”
The 56-year-old obtained her zonal and international classification certification simultaneously during the 2002 World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.
“By the time I arrived to do my exam in Japan, I had been classifying for a while, and good people had coached me, so I was able to do both my levels at once,” Lachance said.
In 2006, Lachance received her instructor certification during the World Championships in Amsterdam.
She has recertified as an IWBF classification instructor on several occasions, including in Bangkok last November.
“I like every part of the job. It’s a little odd, I’m passionate about classification,” Lachance said. “I like everything about it. Teaching is part of it, but I like making material to teach. That’s my main involvement with IWBF.
“Wheelchair Basketball Canada has given me so many good opportunities. Wendy Gittens is one of the people that helped my career the most.”
In 2010, Lachance took a sabbatical from her role as an occupational therapist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital to join Wheelchair Basketball Canada full-time. Her primary focus was to revamp the classification certification curriculum across all levels.
She produced and directed a 35-minute introductory video on IWBF classification. In addition, she created a library of over 500 individual player videos in action—resources that are now used globally for both educational and assessment purposes.
“Back then, all we had was a couple of sheets of paper to read – that was the manual,” Lachance explained. “There were no videos, no slide shows – nothing to teach classification with. During that year, I created material to help people better understand classification. That helped put me on the radar of IWBF people because I kept sending them material.
“It was a great experience, and that helped me progress as a classifier. By then, I was on the commission for IWBF, but it helped me turn the corner with classification, and it was thanks to Wendy’s support.”
Lachance has served on the IWBF Classification Commission since 2002 and has held the role of Classification Chairperson for the Americas Zone since 2015.
She has been appointed chief classifier for one IWBF event and 13 Americas Zone competitions. She has also contributed her expertise as a member of the classification panel at five IWBF events and five additional Americas Zone tournaments.
With Wheelchair Basketball Canada, Lachance has been involved in classification since 1998. She served as the national classification chairperson from 2000 to 2014 and has played a key role as a classifier or chief classifier at numerous events, including four Canada Games, 13 CWBL Finals, and 10 National Championships.
In recognition of her outstanding contributions, Lachance was honoured with the WBC Volunteer of the Year award in 2009.
Outside of basketball, Lachance’s newest passion is scuba diving with her husband Francois.
“We did our course maybe four years ago in Quebec, and now it’s our new passion,” Lachance explained. “South Africa is a place I would like to go for scuba diving.
“I went to the Galapagos a few years ago with my kids, and back then, we were just snorkelling, so I think I’d like to go back to scuba diving in that area.”