It was going to be a joyous bus ride from Tucson back to Phoenix for students, teachers and friends of Xavier College Preparatory’s softball team that spring night in 2021.
Hours earlier, the Gators had captured their first Arizona high school girls title in the sport.
And though it was approaching midnight, Xavier’s vice principal for activities, athletic director and golf coach, Sr. Lynn Winsor, BVM, was full of her usual energy and enthusiasm.
She was on a mission.
It was “ice cream for everyone!” Sr. Lynn’s fellow golf coach, Tui Selvaratnam recalled Friday night before a packed Founder’s Hall on the Xavier campus.
But after pulling up to a McDonald’s where only the drive-thru was open, and walking past several vehicles to get to the window, Sr. Lynn learned the cone machine was out of order.
Suddenly, things looked grim.
Not to be denied, Sr. Lynn pivoted to a nearby grocery store.
With the market about to close, she jumped out of the bus and ran “full sprint” to the front door, according to Selvaratnam. With several colleagues in tow, Sr. Lynn beelined for the frozen-foods section, the group collected a batch of ice cream and proceeded to check out.
Mission accomplished.
“That was Sr. Lynn in action: Unstoppable, compassionate and always ready to celebrate one’s success,” Selvaratnam said as the audience broke into applause.
The story was one of many shared by colleagues and even Sr Lynn herself as the Xavier community and several Diocese of Phoenix leaders, including Bishop John Dolan, celebrated her 50 years of service and decorated career as coach, administrator and girls sports advocate.
Bishop Dolan called it “a remarkable” tenure that has “exemplified excellence,” adding Sr. Lynn’s “boundless charm is known throughout the diocese.”
One former standout player said that Sr. Lynn put Xavier on the map.
Ashley Menne, a three-time individual golf champion who led the Gators to three state titles in the 2010s, said when she introduces herself today as a Xavier alum, people often mention her coach and athletic director before anything else.
“The moment I say I went to Xavier, they’re like, ‘Yeah, Sr. Lynn.’
“That’s so cool she has that impact on people who had no connection to the school,” Menne said awaiting the start of the luau-themed program.
Lynn Winsor was a student at Xavier in the 1960s, going on to earn a bachelor of arts degree from Arizona State University in 1967 before entering the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM). She earned her master’s degree at the University of Iowa and began teaching in St. Louis, but when the school there closed, Sr. Lynn in 1974 returned to Xavier as head of the physical education department and golf coach.
Appointed vice principal for activities and athletic director in 1977, she continued to coach.
Her teams won a national record 37 state championships. In one 27-year period, the Gators did not lose a single regular-season match.
Xavier also produced numerous individual state title winners.
Several players became star collegiate golfers including the late Heather Farr, her sister, Missy Farr-Kaye, Amanda Blumenhurst and Cheyenne Woods-Hicks, the latter among those honoring Sr. Lynn Friday.
“Her enthusiasm and energy taught us what it meant to be a team and to have fun doing what we love. Her passionate fire taught us what it took to be dedicated to something you believe in and always bring our best selves to compete. Her faith taught us what it meant to play for something that is much more than just ourselves,” Woods-Hicks said.
“[But] the most impressive thing about her resume,” the former Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) pro and married mother of two continued, “is that Sister [Lynn] does not play one round of golf.”
Sr. Lynn did learn everything she could about the game.
But her forte was motivation.
She relied on a simple approach to draw out a player’s best.
“I’ve always felt when you’re a coach, you’re not a friend; you’re a mentor and a teacher,” Sr. Lynn said in a pre-celebration interview. “That is what makes the difference in their life. They have many friends in their life. But right now, they need discipline, spiritual training; to learn sportsmanship. They need to learn what teamwork is all about. Many girls come here and have never been on a team.
“What young people need today is to feel part of something; to feel respected, to feel loved and cared for. And they’ll do the same thing for everybody else,” she added.
That drive for excellence as a person, perhaps more than the titles and awards, is what players remember years after leaving Xavier.
“Sister has always been more than just a coach,” said Woods-Hicks. “She believes in helping the student-athlete become not just a great player but a successful woman.”
Selvaratnam echoed those thoughts.
“Sr. Lynn didn’t just coach athletes. She developed dreams. She didn’t just win games, she built character. Her legacy isn’t just about trophies. It’s about the thousands of young women who have learned that faith, determination and teamwork are ingredients to what they can achieve.”
For Sr. Lynn, that also meant expanding the playing field for girls. Not just at Xavier, but in Arizona and throughout the nation.
Her advocacy helped open or enlarge programs in lacrosse, soccer, flag football and beach volleyball.
She recalled a 2010 conversation with a colleague about launching beach volleyball at Xavier.
“I said, ‘We’ll practice anywhere.’ We started our own league with four schools. Now, everybody’s playing beach volleyball.”
Her many awards include the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s (AIA) first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, for “her leadership locally and nationally [that] has changed and influenced the face of athletics, especially in the areas of equity, coaches education, sportsmanship, athletic administration, coaches’ education and education-based athletic and activity programs.”
She credits her role as a nun for helping open the doors.
“Often In the 70s and 80s, women couldn’t get very far. But I was ‘Sister Lynn,’ and I think I had a little edge, really.”
She also credits her colleagues, especially the Xavier leadership team.
“I could never do any of this without the support of [President] Sister Joan [Fitzgerald, BVM] and Sr. Joanie [Nuckols, the former longtime principal who retired in 2024].”
“I’ve been very, very fortunate to work with wonderful parents, students, teachers, faculty, staff, alumnae.”
She also used her connections as a member of the AIA Girls Equity and Sports Committee. And her sense of humor.
Sr. Joan noted several early conversations about facilities expansion.
Sr. Lynn had a trademark phrase, a twist on the line from the movie “Field of Dreams.”
“She would say, ‘If I build it, they will pay for it,’ Sr. Joan recalled.
Sr. Lynn hasn’t been just about sports to support her students.
Retired drama teacher and theater department head Janice Robillard twice gave her a part in the school play, “The Sound of Music.”
Sr. Lynn, of course, played one of the nuns.
“We found her a costume. She would sing,” said Robillard, who called Sr. Lynn “the best cheerleader you could ever have.”
Asked what Catholic saints she draws inspiration from, Sr. Lynn pointed to St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Lisieux.
But St. Hildegard of Bingen is her favorite.
A German Benedictine abbess born in 1098, Hildegard was a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic and medical practitioner. She was canonized by Pope Benedict in 2012.
“She was a kind of out-of-the-box lady,” Sr. Lynn said. “She did things people didn’t do. I always have a little special devotion to her.”
For Sr. Lynn, Xavier has been “an ideal situation.”
“From the very beginning, Sr. Joan has been so good. I’ve always had enough staff, enough people to help me. We now have 70 coaches, 75 clubs. Everybody pitches in. That’s what makes Xavier special. We’re a community.
“I’ve just been so fortunate,” she continued. “Being an extrovert helps. I was rather precocious as a child. I can give a speech anytime.”
“[But] I’m full of gratitude. God has been so good to me.”
