The Maritime Women’s Basketball Association is prepared for its fourth season of competition, beginning the first weekend of May.
Seven teams will return to the MWBA fold.
The squads include two-time reigning champion Halifax Thunder, Halifax Hornets, Lake City 56ers of Dartmouth/Cole Harbour, Fredericton Freeze, Moncton Mystics, Saint John’s Port City Fog and Miramichi Hericanes.
The 2024 schedule will be released later in March.
Here are some news and notes from around the league:
- Congratulations to Mark Forward of the Halifax Hornets, off to another Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association national championship. Forward is the long-time head coach of perennial powerhouse Mount St. Vincent University Mystics, who won the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association title following a win over Charlottetown’s Holland College Hurricanes. Forward and the Mystics will attend the national tournament, hosted by Fredericton’s St. Thomas University Tommies. Mount St. Vincent features Amanda Pearcey of the Hornets and Celine Sterckel of Moncton on their roster.
- Four players who played in the MWBA last season are off to USPORTS championship later in March at the University of British Columbia. Allie McCarthy and Bailey Russell of the University of Ottawa Gee Gees and teammates with the MWBA’s Fredericton Freeze, will see Aliyah Fraser and Katelyn Power of the Saint Mary’s University Huskies at the nationals. Fraser played for Thunder last season and Power was with the Hornets. Former MWBAers Lucina Beaumont and Clara Gascoine are also with the Huskies.
- Two members of the MWBA are entering the final stages of their first professional seasons in Europe. Alaina McMillan of Thunder turned pro in France with Arras Pays D’Artrois, located in the northern part of the country. Elizabeth Iseyemi of Lake City is playing professionally with Heidelberg in Germany. The MWBA has had five players sign professional contracts including McMillan, Iseyemi, Karissa Kajorinne (Portugal), Sophie Widmeyer (Ireland), Tiffany Reynolds (Nicaragua).
- The MWBA had hoped to expand to eight teams in time for 2024 with a new team operating out of Truro, NS. Hopes were high in late December, but plans fell through for the Nova Scotia hub in early February. The league continues to work with potential operators to expand in 2025.
- Bill Gibson, the voice of the Fredericton Freeze who has also called a number of MWBA championship games and playoffs, was named Sport New Brunswick’s media personality of the year. Gibson also co-hosts a popular sports podcast called Late Scratches.
- Longtime MWBA player Karla Yepez has opted to change her sneakers to sideline shoes in 2024. Yepez, who played with Thunder last season, was named head coach of arch-rival Halifax Hornets.
- Speaking of coaching, three familiar faces will not be returning to the coaching ranks. That includes Parker Regan, the only coach Thunder has known, Augy Jones of the Hornets and Port City’s Madeline Belding. As mentioned, Yepez replaces Jones. Both Thunder and Port City are awaiting coaching announcements.
- Hoop salute to Moncton general manager, Shannon Parlee, who is behind a popular women’s recreational basketball league in the New Brunswick city. Parlee has approximately 80 women playing in a five-team circuit that wraps up Sunday, May 4, with its championship game.
- The Port City brother tandem of Paul and Peter Hickey guided their Rothesay High Redhawks to a AAA boys’ championship berth at the New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Final 12 at TD Station in Saint John. Rothesay fell in the final to Fredericton High Black Kats.
- Fredericton import Milene Spyckerelle, who arrive in the MWBA via France and Sweden, finished her Freeze season and spent the next 35 days cycling from the New Brunswick capital to Montreal. She had an amazing experience in the Maritimes and was a popular teammate with the Freeze.