Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti

On this episode of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti, we had the opportunity to sit down with the Head Coach of StFX Women's Basketball team, Lee Anna Osei.   

Lee Anna Osei is in her second season as head coach of the X-Women basketball program. Having previously coached at the The RISE Centre (TRC) Academy in Brantford, Ont., Osei guided the women’s program in 2017-18. She was awarded the 2018 Prep School Coach of the Year award, concluding the season as one of the youngest and most successful coaches in Canadian prep school basketball, amassing an 18-3 record in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association.  

With 12 years of coaching experience under her belt, Osei founded the Canletes Basketball program in Toronto, providing services ranging from general sport specific fitness training, recruitment consulting, and showcase events. She is a former basketball skills trainer for Universal Hoops Canada and has several years of coaching experience at the Ontario provincial level for various girls and boys teams. In honour of Canada's 150th anniversary, Osei was selected as 1 of 150 women nationally who excel in their field, push for greater diversity and who help build vibrant communities in the ‘HERSTORY in Black’ series as televised by CBC News.  

Osei is a graduate and former varsity athlete at Wilfrid Laurier University where she was named an ‘Outstanding Woman of Laurier’, was an OUA all-star and was recognized as a four-time academic All-Canadian. She also competed for the University of Miami in the NCAA Division 1 level and at Trinity Valley C.C in Athens, Texas where her experiences have helped shape her coaching style and ability to mentor athletes.  

Bio: goxgo.ca

On today's episode of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti we had the chance to sit down with a BC Highschool Basketball Coach legend, Neil Brown.   Over the years of coaching BC Schools, Neil Brown has coached 10 Provincial Championship teams and 16 Fraser Valley Champions.

On this episode of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti we had the opportunity to sit down with the Head Coach of the SFU Men's Basketball team, Steve Hanson.   

Steve Hanson, long-time coach of the Terry Fox Ravens who served as an assistant at Simon Fraser University, has been appointed as the school's head coach of the men's basketball program, Senior Director of Athletics and Recreation Theresa Hanson announced today.   

Steve Hanson, who is not related to Theresa, was the lead assistant on the Clan men's basketball team this past season and has been interim head coach of the program since April 7. Prior to joining Simon Fraser, Hanson coached Terry Fox Secondary to the 2012 BC High School Boys Basketball 3A provincial championship and led the Ravens to a second place finish at the 2015 4A tournament.

Steve Hanson, 41, is a native of Coquitlam with deep roots in the British Columbia basketball community. Terry Fox had a 93–27 win-loss record during Hanson's four-year tenure as head coach. He was also an assistant to Canadian coaching legend Rich Chambers at Terry Fox for six years.   

Hanson's coaching resume includes Head Coach of the Canada Basketball Centre for Performance (CP) program in British Columbia where he worked with BC's elite players.  Previous CP head coaches include Jay Triano, Scott Clark, Rich Goulet and Rich Chambers. Hanson was also an AAU Coach with the 3D Basketball Academy where he led their boys' academy for three years. He has the equivalent of Level 3 certification from the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP).   

Hanson has ties to Simon Fraser University as well. He received his Bachelor of Education from Simon Fraser in 2013. Hanson is married to Mary-Anne, and they hey have one son, Adryan, who played for the Clan in 2009-10 before going on to a successful international modelling career.   

As the lead assistant on the Clan last season, Hanson is familiar with the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.   

"In order to compete in the GNAC we need to recruit the right individual for SFU's high academic standards and players that want to develop in our system," explained Steve.  "I want to recruit athletes that value a world-class education, that want to live in one of the best cities in the world and that want to play against NCAA competition."   

Hanson is an excellent communicator and skilled at building relationships. His Terry Fox teams were known for their competitiveness on the court, their team-first attitude and their engagement within the community.   

Hanson is the eighth head coach in the history of the men's basketball program at Simon Fraser. He assumes control of the program immediately and will now begin assembling a coaching staff.   

"We are committed to building men's basketball into one of our flagship athletic programs at the university and we know it is not going to happen overnight," said Theresa Hanson. "This is a positive step forward and I'm looking forward to the future of men's basketball."   

Steve Hanson also spent six years as a Speed & Strength Specialist with Gridiron Sports Development Inc., working with players in the NFL, CFL and NHL.    

Hanson received a Bachelor of Physical Education and Coaching from Douglas College in 2011.  

Bio: athletics.sfu.ca

On this episode of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti, we spoke with Founder and Director of Girls Basketball at Calgary Basketball Association, Carey Blaskin.  

Blaskin's playing career ended in high school but his love for the game was reinvigorated when his daughter began playing back in 2008. Since then, Blaskin's CBA has grown to 30 teams and continues to assert itself as one of the most dominant programs in Calgary.

On the next installment of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti, we had the distinct privilege of sitting down with one of the greatest coaches in Basketball BC history, Rich Chambers.  

Chambers, a Port Moody native, coached the Centennial Cenaturs Sr. Boys for 17 seasons before moving on to coach both the girls and boys programs at Terry Fox on and off for the past 20+ years.  Chambers has also taken his coaching talents to the University level coaching briefly with the UBC Men's & Women's programs, SFU Men's program, and the University of Victoria Women's program where he served as Head Coach from 2011-2012.  

Chambers has also been a fixture in the Jr. Women's National team program with Canada Basketball coaching various squads at the FISU Games and other international competitions.  Chambers has won many coaching awards including the Tom Tagami Award (2008), B.C. High School Coach of the Year (2003, 1985) and Gary Scott Award for coaching excellence (1998).  

Chambers, who has been teaching in B.C. since 1973, also served as B.C.'s Technical Reference for Basketball B.C./Canada Basketball and the Head Coach of the Centre of Performance for Canada Basketball. He is a graduate of SFU with a BA in education, majoring in history and geography.

Damian Jennings was appointed the eighth coach in Dinos women’s basketball history in July 2012.   

Jennings moved to Calgary from Wales where he led the Cardiff Metropolitan University (formerly the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff) women’s basketball program beginning in October 2005. Under his leadership, the UWIC Archers became one of the elite teams in the England Basketball League’s Division I, winning the league title in 2010 & 2012. In 6 years, Jennings turned a Division 2 outfit into a semi-professional program making 11 finals, and developing Olympic level basketball players. 

In his final season (2011-12) before moving to Canada, Jennings led the Archers to a 19-2 record, winning the regular season title before losing in the championship game. He was named EBL coach of the year in 2006-07 & 2008-09.   

The Archers also won three consecutive British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) national titles from 2007-10 under his leadership, going undefeated through 52 games across 4 seasons.   

In addition to his basketball duties, he has also been a senior lecturer in sports management at UWIC since 2004. Jennings received a First Class BSc (Hons) degree in sport development in 2001 and a Distinction in his MA in sports development and coaching in 2004, both from UWIC.   

From 2007-09 Jennings was selected by Basketball Wales to complete the inaugural FIBA Europe Coaching Certificate, achieving the highest grade in the European class of 35 with the prize of leading the very first European U18 All-Star game where his team included Toronto Raptors Jonas Valanciunas & Golden State Warriors Nemanja Nedovic. - they won by 2pts   

Jennings has also been involved with Great Britain Basketball since its inception in 2006 after London was awarded the Summer Olympics, coaching in more than 110 games to date for Britain. Alongside being the Assistant Coach to the Senior Great Britain Women’s team in the build up to London 2012 he was the Head Coach of the U20 program leading them to promotion from Euro-Basket Division B to Division A, winning the European title and was named eurobasket.com coach of the European tournament. In the following year he took them to an unprecedented quarter-finals in Division A. He was then named the head coach for the British entry in 2011’s Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China. After being one of the Assistant Coach at London 2012 Olympics he was then appointed Head Coach of the Senior team and took them to the best ever finish by any Senior Great Britain basketball team in the 2013 Eurobasket finishing 9th with a 3-3 record.   

In Jennings’ first year as Head Coach of the Calgary Dinos he led them to a National Final 8’s winning the Canada West regular season with a 19-3 record, a silver medal in the Canada West Final, and eventually securing 4th place in the National Championships. He was voted the 2012-13 ‘Coach of the Year’ by his Canada West peers.  Each year since then, Jennings has secured playoff basketball for Calgary, with 2017-18 culminating in another National Championship appearance after a bronze medal performance in conference play. Calgary would drop a close one in the opening game to the eventual national champions, Carleton, to then move on to beat McMaster and Laval to win consolation gold.  

Bio courtesy of: godinos.com

On today's episode of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti, we had the chance to sit down with the Head Coach of Brock University Women's Basketball Team, Mike Rao.  

Mike Rao begins his second season as head coach of the Brock women’s basketball team. In his first campaign, Rao guided the Badgers to their first playoff berth since 2012.  

Rao coached the Notre Dame high school boys basketball team for 36 years before joining the Badgers in 2016.  

He played a key role under coach Charles Kissi during the 2017-18 season as the men’s team made it to the U SPORTS National Championships for the first time in 10 years.  Rao holds a degree in Business from Niagara College and a Bachelor’s of Education from Brock University.  Bio: 

gobadgers.ca

On today's episode of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti we had the pleasure of sitting down with the UBC Women's Basketball Assistant Coach Carrie Watts.   

From Agassiz, B.C., Watson became the program’s full-time assistant coach in June of 2007. Since then, the Thunderbirds have captured a U SPORTS national championship and three Canada West banners, while going 152-58 in Canada West league play.   

As a player, the former Canadian national team member led UBC to the 2004 U SPORTS championship, the school’s first title in 30 years at the time. That season she was recognized as a Canada West all-star, second team U SPORTS All-Canadian and U SPORTS Defensive Player of the Year before taking home championship MVP honours. She still holds the school record for steals in a game with 10.   

Watts went on to a stint with the senior national team that started in the summer of 2005 and continued into 2007, with highlights including the 2006 FIBA World Basketball Championship in Brazil and 2007 Pan American Games.   

Watts holds three degrees from UBC, Bachelor of Human Kinetics (2004), Bachelor of Education (2005), and a Masters of Kinesiology (2011).   

This past summer, Watts served as the head coach of the B.C. Under-17 provincial team that competed in the 2017 Canada Summer Games. In 2015, she held the same role, coaching the provincial team to a fourth-place finish at the national championship. The year before, Watts assisted at Canada Basketball’s Western Canada Juvenile Assessment Camp. She has also assisted with the Canada Basketball Centre of Performance. From 2008-11, Watts was the head coach of the Basketball BC U-15 provincial team, which she led to back-to-back bronze medals at the juvenile National Championship tournament in 2010 and 2011.  

Bio: gothunderbirds.ca

On this episode of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti, we had the chance to sit down with three-time Canada West Coach of the Year, Scott Edwards.  

Edwards, the current Head Coach of the University of Alberta Pandas has, had an impressive fifteen-year coaching career which has led him to one CIS Silver Medal (2007), one CIS Bronze Medal (2009) and six Canada West Bronze Medals (2008, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016).  

After a season and a half as the Interim head coach, Scott Edwards officially became the Pandas basketball head coach on February 15, 2008, replacing 15-year coach and former Pandas All-Star Trix Baker.  

Edwards grew up on Vancouver Island in Duncan, B.C., where he played competitive basketball during his high school days.   

In 1993 Edwards moved to Edmonton, where he completed a Bachelors degree in Education at the U of A in 1997, though he chose not to try out for Coach Don Horwood’s Golden Bears hoop program while completing his studies.   

Upon graduation Edwards became a teacher with Edmonton Public Schools at Britannia Junior High, teaching Social Studies and coaching both boys and girls basketball.   

He became assistant coach for the ACAC Concordia University College Thunder in the fall of 1999 and assumed head coaching duties the following year.   

Over the seven-year existence of the Concordia Thunder women’s basketball program under Edwards, the team improved it’s conference record each year, finally winning the ACAC title in spring 2005 and taking the ultimate prize, a CCAA national championship title with a thrilling 86-63 victory over College of the Fraser Valley at SAIT in Calgary on March 19, 2005.  

For his efforts Scott was named 2004-05 ACAC Coach of the Year and two of his team members were selected as All-Canadians.  

Scott has coached various teams and shared his knowledge at many coaching clinics and in other coaching positions; Assistant Coach – Basketball Alberta Juvenile Provincial Team (2004 & 2005), Head Coach – Basketball Alberta Juvenile Provincial Team (2006 & 2007), Basketball Alberta Regional Training Centre (2005-06).  

His Alberta Juvenile squad took silver at the 2004 national championship in Regina, and his team garnered silver at the 2005 Canada Games held at the University of Regina.  

In his first year he guided the Pandas to the CIS national final and within five points of their first national title since 1998-1999, winning a silver medal and the CIS Coach of the Year Award in the process.  

Bio courtesy of: https://www.ualberta.ca/athletics/tea...

On the next installment of Interviews with Anthony Beyrouti, we sat down with Head Coach of the SFU Women's Basketball team, Bruce Langford.  

Langford has been a fixture in the British Columbia basketball community for 30 years, having coached 21 years in the B.C. school system before arriving at SFU in the fall of 2001.  

During his tenure at SFU, Langford has guided the Clan to seven 30+ win seasons. Entering the 2018-19 season, Langford has a career record of 426 wins and 127 losses (.770 winning percentage) and a 207-38 home record (.844 winning percentage). Since moving to NCAA in 2010-11, Langford's record is 140-91 (.606 winning percentage).  

In the NCAA, Langford has guided the program  to the NCAA tournament three times, advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2013 and 2017 and the round of 32 in 2014.  

During the 2014-15 season, Langford passed legendary Clan coach Allison McNeill in career wins, becoming the most successful coach in program history. McNeill compiled a 363-79 record at SFU.  

In Langford’s first nine seasons at SFU the Clan competed in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS). The Clan advanced to the CIS National Championship tournament every year under Langford, winning five CIS national championships. Langford compiled a win-loss record of 286-36 over nine seasons in CIS, including a 142-9 mark at home. During that time the Clan also had a 54-game winning streak straddling the 2009-10 and 2008-09 seasons, and a 45-game winning streak during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.  

Twice Langford’s teams have gone undefeated. His first team in 2001-02 went 35-0 and his 2004-05 team compiled a  38-0 record, the most wins in SFU history.  Bio: https://athletics.sfu.ca/coaches.aspx...