When the Canada Summer Games and Canada Basketball age class championships kick off this month, there will be a solid representation from the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association on the sidelines as coaches.
The Canada Summer Games is slated for Aug. 8 to 25 in St. John’s, NL, for athletes 17 and under in basketball. The under-15 boys’ and girls’ Canada Basketball championships are in Ontario this week.
A number of MWBA players and coaches are leading the way at the events for teams in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Haley McDonald is the head coach of Basketball Nova Scotia’s under-17 girls’ team. McDonald played in the MWBA with the Halifax Thunder in the league’s inaugural 2022 season.
She played for BNS on five different occasions, attending multiple under-17 and under-15 events as a player. McDonald enjoyed a stellar career with Acadia University Axewomen, where she was an Atlantic University Sport MVP, multiple all-star team selection and Academic All-Canadian amongst a litany of other awards.
McDonald is a full-time lead assistant coach with Acadia women’s team.
One of her assistants with BNB under-17s is Maia Timmons, an MWBA veteran coach with the Halifax Hornets.
Timmons has spent three seasons as an assistant coach with Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association powerhouse Mount St. Vincent University Mystics. She competed in four Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championships as a player before moving on to play with the University of Ottawa Gee Gees, where she graduated in 2021.
She has been an assistant coach with BNS’ under-16 girls in 2023. She will also be completing her second and final year in the CCAA Female Coaching Mentorship Program, continuing her commitment to the development of young athletes.
With BNB, its under-17 team is full of former MWBA players under the direction of head coach Bram Russell, who returns to his home province for the Canada Summer Games.
BNB assistant coaches are former Port City Fog of Saint John’s Rachel Farwell, Emily Briggs of the Moncton Mystics and Jayda Veinot of Thunder.
Madeline Belding, who spent three seasons coaching Port City and is now an assistant coach with the University of New Brunswick Reds, is guiding BNB’s under-15 girls.
Former Fredericton Freeze associate coach Colleen Daly is BNB under-16 girls’ head coach. One of her assistants is Freeze player Kylee Speedy, who also plays for UNB.
Fog head coach Dominic Laviolette is an assistant coach with BNB’s under-15 boys’ team.
Former Miramichi Her-Icanes’ assistant coach Jimmy Watters is head coach for BNB’s under-17 team. One of his assistants is former Fredericton head coach, John Hickey.
– Former MWBA star Haley McDonald is head coach of BNS at Canada Summer Games. (DWinston Photo)