Chantal Vallée to become first woman to coach, GM pro men’s basketball team
Chantal Vallée, one of the most successful collegiate basketball coaches in Canada, will become the first-ever woman to act as both head coach and general manager of a professional men’s team.
The Hamilton Honey Badgers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League named Vallée coach and manager on Wednesday.
“I am honoured and excited to be taking on the challenge of serving as Head Coach and General Manager of the Hamilton Honey Badgers in the first year of Canada’s new professional basketball league,” Vallée said in a press release. “We are at an unprecedented time of growth for basketball across Canada.”
The Montreal native led the University of Windsor women’s basketball team to five straight national championship titles (2011-15), 11 consecutive trips to the OUA Final Four and a 351-93 record in 14 years – good for a .791 wining percentage. She was named Canadian U Sports Coach of the Year twice and amassed over 20 awards in her tenure with the Windsor Lancers.
The team had four winning seasons and no playoff wins before Vallée’s arrival in 2005.
The CEBL was created in 2017 with the objective of helping to grow Canadian basketball.
The Honey Badgers are one of the league’s six teams and will compete against the Edmonton Stingers, Fraser Valley Bandits, Guelph Nighthawks, Niagara River Lions and Saskatchewan Rattlers when the league begins play in May 2019.