Lois MacGregor and Karen Fraser-Moore to enter VNS Hall of Fame

The honours and awards Lois has earned include being inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in 1998 as a Builder and in 2001 as Coach of her 1981-82 CIAU(CIS) Championship Gold Medal  Team, as well winning the Dalhousie University’s Hall of Fame Inaugural Membership in 2005. Lois was also the recipient of the A.J. “Sandy” Young Memorial Award in 2003, an award that honours individuals who have contributed significantly to sport in Nova Scotia.

Lois began her coaching career at the University of Illinois in 1970-71 and then with Dalhousie Tigers in 1975 -1986 after a four-year playing career at Dal (1966-70). She would coach the Tigers for ten years, winning five AUAA Championships, a CIAU gold (1982) and a CIAU(CIS) silver medal (1984) and AUAA Coach of the Year honours four times, as well as Dalhousie Coach of the year several times. The highlight of her coaching career was in 1982 when she led Dalhousie to a gold medal at the CIAU(CIS) National Championships at home in Dalhousie University. This was a feat no other team- women or men- from Atlantic Canada has ever accomplished, to this date. Lois has continued to coach, leading numerous junior and senior high school teams as well as club teams. Lois was the Coach of Nova Scotia White and Red Teams who won two international tourneys in England in the mid-seventies.  She also was the Assistant Coach of the World University Games Team for Canada in 1983, FISU Games, Edmonton, Alberta. She can currently be found coaching the girl’s varsity volleyball team at Citadel High School.

Lois is a fully certified Level IV coach who was the first female coach certified at that level in Nova Scotia.  Her contributions to the coaching community in Nova Scotia span many decades and have been invaluable. She has volunteered on numerous VNS and Volleyball Canada committees over the years including holding the position of VNS President,  VNS Secretary, VNS Coaching Committee Chairperson for many years, as well as serving on the CVA (Canadian Volleyball Association) coaching development committee and CVA Technical Competitions Committee. Lois has also led the Volleyball Venture Annual Camp as Camp Director and Elite Girls Coach for many years, as well as participating and organizing countless volleyball camps, clinics, and leagues.  She continues her work as the Founder and Co-President of the Halifax Senior Women’s Volleyball League, a league that has been running under her leadership since 1975, with 18 “tiered” teams and over200 female athletes participating aged 19- and beyond!!!!. She still coaches her Antiques, a team that she played on since 1975.

Lois has been a champion for female athletes, sitting on Sport Nova Scotia’s Women in Sport Committee, as well as many other Sports Committees promoting female athletes. She has also been credited with helping to convince Dalhousie University to drop the name “Tigerettes” to “Tigers” for female athletic teams at Dalhousie University because she believed language was important. She also lobbied to alternate the order by which the university’s men’s and women’s matches, as well as high school matches, were scheduled instead of always having the women play first and the men(boys) play the feature match, day, or time. Lois helped found the Dal Volleyball University Classic with Al Scott – a feature top-level University tournament in January.  She also help found the Dal High School and Junior High School Invitational originally started by Coach Lorne Sawula, the coach ahead of Lois at Dalhousie University.  This tournament evolved into one of Canada’s major high school and junior high tournaments with 80+ teams participating with Lois and Al Scott as co-organizers.

For her entire life, Lois has endeavored to help mold girls and women who would go on to become outstanding members of the community.  Lois states, “I always tried to help my athletes be the best they could be individually and as a team while still having fun. I hoped my athletes would feel good about themselves from their participation on my teams and that they would continue to enjoy their sport and perhaps get involved in coaching other young people like themselves.”

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Karen Fraser-Moore 

As a child growing up in Halifax, Karen Fraser-Moore was an incredibly talented multisport athlete playing basketball, badminton, field hockey, tennis, and hockey before focusing on volleyball.

Karen knew how to win early on in her volleyball career leading her Halifax West High School team to two straight Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation Championship titles. She continued to excel and grew into an important player on Team Nova Scotia competing in numerous Provincial Team tournaments and leading Nova Scotia’s Team to a seventh-place finish at the Canada Games in Brandon, Manitoba in 1979. 

She first joined the National Team as a member of the 1978-79 Junior Team where she quickly progressed to the Senior National Team and would travel the world representing Canada at the Pan Am Games, World Student Games, NORCECA Championships, World Championships, as well as multiple World Cup events. 

Karen’s National Team training also took her to Ottawa where the team would train full time with the goal of earning birth to the 1984 Olympics. The squad narrowly missed out on their goal of making the Olympics through the qualification tournament but were later awarded an Olympic berth when Cuba boycotted the event. Team Canada had a strong showing that summer in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, finishing in eighth place.

Karen began her illustrious university career with the Dalhousie Tigers in 1979 where she earned numerous individual and team awards, including:

• AUAA Rookie of the Year (1979)
• AUAA All-Star (five times)
• AUAA League Most Valuable Player (1985)
• CIAU Championship All-Star (three times)
• CIAU Second Team All-Canadian (two times)
• CIAU First Team All-Canadian (1986)
• AUAA Champions (four times)
• CIAU Champions (1982)
• CIAU Silver Medalists (1984)
• Dalhousie Female Athlete of the Year Award 1986 

She later transitioned from volleyball player to full-time coach, assuming the reins of the Dalhousie team for the 1984-85 season and again from 1986 and 1991, leading the Tigers to three conference championship titles. She then moved on to working in the athletic department for more than 30 years in various roles, retiring as the Director of Varsity Athletics in 2014.

Karen is a member of the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame, inducted in 1996 as well as a member of Dalhousie University’s Hall of Fame being inducted in 2018. 

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Volleyball Nova Scotia’s Hall of Fame celebrates the outstanding achievements of athletes, coaches, referees, teams, and builders from across the province. These individuals represent the very best of our sport, not only by virtue of their athletic achievement but also through their dedication and commitment.