HIGH ACHIEVERS: Deb Huband entering Canada Basketball Hall of Fame a second time; Dani Sinclair OUA women’s basketball coach of the year

By Martin Cleary

When the U Sports national men’s and women’s basketball championships unfold at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver March 13-16, a former top college player and coach from Ottawa will be an avid spectator.

Deb Huband, who excelled as a university and national women’s team player as well as a coach at the collegiate level, will be cheering for multiple teams in both national tournament draws.

Life doesn’t get much better for someone who has been involved in the sport for about 55 years.

“I have three ways to win,” an exuberant Huband admitted in a recent phone interview. “I’ll definitely be a spectator.”

Based in Vancouver for the last three decades, including a 26-year run as head coach of the successful UBC Thunderbirds women’s basketball program, Huband has as many as seven teams to support from her seat in the stands.

Ottawa was an important basketball hub for Huband, 68, as she played in the former Rookies girls’ program under Hazel Miner and spent many hours in pick-up and summer league games on the University of Ottawa’s Montpetit Hall court.

She’ll be supporting the uOttawa Gee-Gees women’s and men’s teams as they have already qualified for the U Sports nationals by reaching their respective OUA finals, to be played on Saturday.

The No. 1-ranked Carleton University women’s team and two-time defending champions also will be on her watch list. The Ravens will meet the Gee-Gees in the OUA championship game for a first-time clash of the crosstown rivals in the provincial final.

After spending her freshman year at Concordia University, Huband switched to Bishop’s University and sparked the Gaiters to three Quebec conference titles (33-0 combined regular season record), bronze medals at the 1978 and 1979 national championships and consolation final honours in 1980.

Huband certainly wouldn’t want to miss any of the Bishop’s men’s and women’s games involving her alma mater.

Finally, she’ll be cheering for the Thunderbirds men’s and women’s teams as UBC will be playing host to both prominent national championships.

Huband is the longest-serving head coach in UBC women’s basketball history, guiding the Thunderbirds from 1995 through 2021 and recording an overall record of 538 wins against 295 losses.

Another 10 victories came at national championships, when she directed the Thunderbirds to gold medals in 2004, 2006 and 2008 as well as one silver and one bronze medals.

This has been a busy winter for Huband, whether it’s following the U Sports basketball scene or coaching teams at a neighbourhood elementary school in Vancouver.

Canada Basketball added more excitement to her basketball season, when it announced on a Zoom meeting that the 1979 national women’s team would be inducted into the association’s hall of fame sometime this summer.

Huband was one of a dozen players on that youthful squad, which had experienced players in Sylvia Sweeney and Chris Critelli as well as 10 national-team newcomers.

Despite their youth, head coach Don McCrae directed Canada to an unexpected bronze medal at the 1979 world women’s championship in South Korea. It marked the first time Canada had won a medal at the worlds. That feat has only been matched once since, when Canada was the 1986 worlds bronze medallist.

This will be the second time Huband will be inducted into the Canada Basketball Hall of Fame as she was honoured as a player in 1994.

“I’m not sure we had any grandiose expectations,” Huband said, reflecting back almost 46 years. “We were young, hard working, committed and enthusiastic. We trusted and respected our coach. We loved to fully invest in the game and were willing to give our best effort.”

Canada, which had placed 11th at the 1975 worlds and sixth and last at the 1976 Summer Olympics, shocked the world basketball community by winning its pool at 3-0.

Playing before 20,000 spectators, Canada upset South Korea 76-63 and followed that with convincing wins over Bolivia, 84-36, and The Netherlands, 84-58.

In the crossover, Canada struck for three more impressive wins, taking down Italy 64-55, France 72-59 and Australia 66-57. The final round-robin game saw the United States outscore Canada 77-61.

In the end, the U.S., South Korea and Canada finished deadlocked with 6-1 records and the point-differential system determined the medallists – gold for the U.S., silver for South Korea and bronze for Canada. Korea edged Canada for silver by the slimmest margin.

“We were unlucky. Even if we lost to the U.S. by two fewer points, I’m not sure if we’d get gold, but certainly silver,” Huband analyzed.

The world women’s championships have evolved into a World Cup competition, where the best teams play preliminary pool matches and the top teams move into a playoff bracket of quarterfinals, semifinals and two matches to determine the medallists.

“I’m not sure why they did it that way, but it turned out amazing for us,” she added. “It was fantastic and special. We were asked for autographs and photos. It was something we had never experienced.”

Huband was asked to join the Canadian women’s team program in 1978, after she was named the MVP at the national university championship that year. She was a shooting guard and a prolific scorer, once holding the national record for most points in one game at 50. But McCrae wanted the team captain to be a point guard and run the offence and defence on the floor.

“I adjusted my game somewhat and became the floor general,” recalled the versatile Huband. “I focused on defence and scoring sometimes. Chris Critelli and Sylvia Sweeney (world championship MVP) were our two best scorers.”

Bev Smith, who would become one of Canada’s premier players as well as a successful professional in Italy, also was a significant player and was named to the world championship all-star team.

Huband called the 1979 world bronze-medal team, which was completed by Candi Clarkson, Denise Dignard, Sharon Douglas, Luanne Hebb, Holly Jackson, Alison Lang, Dori McPhail and Debbi Steele, “a special group of people.”

“We were all fairly young, travelling the world to places in Bulgaria, Russia, Korea. There was no internet then and when we went on a trip there were 12 players and staff,” said Huband, who also watched the team come together in multiple two-week training camps.

“There were no phone calls back home. We really connected with who we were with. We were in the moment. That’s all we had. We focused, reaped the benefits of our travel and developed strong relationships.

“It was all about basketball.”

Several weeks ago, Canada Basketball brought eight of the players together in a Zoom meeting to announce the 1979 team would be inducted into the hall of fame.

“It gave us a chance and time to reminisce and reflect,” continued Huband, who was thrilled to enter the hall this time as a member of a team. “It’s a team sport.

“It’s tremendously meaningful. It was the first time Canada Basketball and Canada had stepped on the world stage and won a medal. We were young and naïve and led by two Olympians. It was an eyeopener and catapulted Canada onto the world stage.”

Come induction day, it will once again be “all about basketball.”

CARLETON’S DANI SINCLAIR, WATERLOO’S OKO-OBOH EARN OUA BASKETBALL AWARDS

Dani Sinclair was selected the OUA women’s basketball coach of the year on Wednesday, after Carleton University posted its second career perfect regular-season record. The Ravens were 22-0 in 2024-25.

The 2024 and 2023 U Sports champions finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the country. The Ravens held their opponents to less than 60 points a game in 17 of 22 games, while winning by 30 points or more seven times.

Sinclair watched the talented Ravens roster average 41.6 per cent in field-goal shooting and 31 per cent outside the three-point arc. That quality shooting allowed the Ravens to average 75.4 points a game.

In February, Sinclair was selected the female coach of the year for 2024 at the Ottawa Sports Awards Dinner and the Ravens were the top female team for a second straight year.

Meanwhile, Nehita Oko-Oboh was named the OUA’s defensive player of the year for the University of Waterloo Warriors.

The senior chemical engineering student-athlete from Ottawa started all 21 games for the Warriors and led the conference in total rebounds at 276, rebound average at 13.1 a game and blocked shots at 54. All three stats are Waterloo team records.

Oko-Oboh was the first Waterloo player to be designated the OUA defensive player of the year.

The OUA all-star teams featured seven players with Ottawa connections:

· Natsuki Szczokin, University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, first team;
· Jacqueline Urban, Carleton, first team;
· Kyana-Jade Poulin, Carleton, second team;
· Katrina Renon, Queen’s University Gaels, second team;
· Nehita Oko-Oboh, Waterloo, third team;
· Allie McCarthy, Ottawa, third team;
· Nathalie Francis, Carleton, all-rookie.