Whitehorse Daily Star

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COACH’S COACH – Lorraine Kuhn touched many people in her time. Photo courtesy SPORT YUKON/KUHN FAMILY

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MENTOR TO MANY – Canada Games Team 1979. Photo courtesy SPORT YUKON/KUHN FAMILY

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YEARS OF DEDICATION – The 1986 Arctic Winter Games team. Photo courtesy SPORT YUKON/KUHN FAMILY

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

LEGACY CONTINUES – Tyler Kuhn and daughter Inara Church hung the photo in the Yukon Sports Hall of Fame.

Hall of Fame Hall of Fame salutes late coach’s dedication

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Yukon Sports Hall of Fame, Sport Yukon held a ceremony Wednesday to induct Lorraine Kuhn into the hall.

By Whitehorse Star on June 18, 2021

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Yukon Sports Hall of Fame, Sport Yukon held a ceremony Wednesday to induct Lorraine Kuhn into the hall.

“Lorraine helped establish Volleyball Yukon in the 1990s and coached generations of Yukoners in both volleyball and basketball at both territorial and national level events,” Sport Yukon said this week.

“ Unfortunately, Lorraine passed away this year, but her legacy lives on in the strong and prosperous community of sport in the Yukon.”

Peter Cassidy first met Kuhn when teaching in Mayo in 1978.

“Not only did she coach the kids, she coached the coaches, and without Lorraine, we would have been in serious, serious trouble,” Cassidy said.

“Lorraine taught the coaches to think. She was so skilled and so organized.

“We had the opportunity to observe a master coach. Her teams and her athletes were superb, and it was a pleasure to watch.”

Kuhn applied her knowledge to every individual athlete in a way that would benefit them the greatest, Cassidy added.

“I was very happy or lucky she was my mentor, and I evolved to be her colleague and then she became my friend.”

Kuhn’s son Tyler also attended, and reminised.

“I know my mom’s passion was volleyball at this point, and she competed in Alberta for the Golden Bears and was on track to make the national team and potentially go to the Olympics in Montreal (in 1976) and made a fateful decision to come north to the Yukon instead,” he said.

“As much as she was at that high level, she really appreciated what the opportunities were here in Whitehorse.

“I really wanted to recognize her desire to help, in particular, young women kind of navigate through life through skills and things that they learned through sport,” her son added.

“Using sport as a vehicle to really tranform people’s lives and help them grow as people.”

Kuhn’s Outside family was in attendance by Facebook live.

The following is from the Sport Yukon Yukon Sports Hall of Fame website:

For more than 35 years, Lorraine Kuhn dedicated herself as an athlete, a coach and most importantly a builder of Yukon sport.

Her legacy appears in the culture of Yukon Volleyball as she shared her passion and motivated others to become the leaders of today.

Lorraine attended the University of Alberta to complete her teaching degree in physical education. She played volleyball in high school and went on to compete in both volleyball and field hockey at the U of A, winning the female athlete of the year award in the 1969-1970 academic year.

Lorraine came to the Yukon in 1970 and began teaching at Takhini Elementary school.  In the early years of her teaching career, she worked with Dave Stockdale to continue to grow the Polar Games to engage kids in healthy physical activity and organized sports.

During this time, Lorraine also coached and developed volleyball and basketball teams at the elementary level and created competitive experiences between schools.

From 1973-1979 and 1985-2001, she was the physical education teacher and coach at F.H. Collins Secondary School, where she coached generations of young people.

Starting in the 1970s, Lorraine exposed many Yukon athletes to high level competition outside of Yukon for the first time. Lorraine believed that to build the teamwork you need to play skilled quality competitors to test your limits and challenge your skills.

Over the years, she coached many Yukoners in both volleyball and basketball, including teams that competed at Arctic Winter Games, Canada Games, and National Championships.

Lorraine was a builder. In 1996, Lorraine and Gerry Kuhn, along with Mike Harper, were the founders of Volleyball Yukon. 

Lorraine held the highest level of volleyball coaching certification in Yukon for many years, level 3 theory and level 4 technical, and she encouraged her athletes to not only get their coaching and officiating designations from Sport Canada, but also encouraged athletes to coach junior teams to create capacity and skill.

Lorraine not only built athletes, teams, and organizations, she helped create good humans who wanted to pay it forward.

Lorraine helped create the strong and prosperous community of sport in Yukon that continues today.

Comments (1)

Up 7 Down 0

She was a great teacher on Jun 18, 2021 at 11:39 pm

Sorry to hear that Lorraine passed away. She was a significant person in my life when everything else was going wrong. She and her family are in my thoughts.

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