Tim Ross brought more than skill on the hardwood during his time at St. Thomas. He volunteered with the Best Buddies program, was on the Board of Governors as a student rep in his final year and won the Rod Shoveller Award in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association.
The Rod Shoveller Award is presented annually to a male or a female basketball player in the ACAA who has shown excellence in academics, athletics, leadership and sportsmanship.
Ross arrived at STU in 1998 and quickly helped the team to back to back ACAA Championships in ’99-00 and ’00-01.
“Competing with the Tommies and reaching Nationals a few times made for a lot of memorable events,” said Ross. “But it was all the time between classes, practices, and road trips spent with friends as we tried to figure out life’s great questions; like whether we should head down to the Cellar, or just stay at Harrington Hall and order pizza.”
Ross graduated from STU in 2002 with a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism and then did a one-year exchange to the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, where he completed his BA in Political Science. He also graduated law school at the University of Calgary in 2010 and worked in corporate/civil litigation in Calgary until moving back to Fredericton in 2014 with his wife and three children. He now works for the New Brunswick Medical Society as the Manager of Negotiations and Physician Compensation.
“Our work is largely related to contract negotiation and management, and my studies at St. Thomas provided the foundation for problem-solving and critical thinking that I lean on every day.”
Ross has several connections to STU basketball to this day, as current men’s head coach, Scott MacLeod, was an assistant coach when he played, and current women’s head coach, Fred Connors, was a teammate of Ross’s for two years.
As for playing, Ross doesn’t play as much competitively anymore, but he is looking forward to his future with basketball.
“I’m more of a weekend warrior now when it comes to hoops, but I’m looking forward to coaching as my kids grow older.”