By Isabella Disley
Born and raised in Ottawa, Lucky Lubangi has always been part of a loving and supportive family, whether at home, living in the Woodroffe neighbourhood, or playing basketball at BGC Ottawa.
The name Lucky came from his parents, who were eager to have a son alongside the five daughters in a row they had. Lucky was the last of the three sons to be born. Having a house full of 10 is certainly loud and busy, but for the Lubangi family, it means more love.
“(My parents) remind me every day that I’m grateful for where I am, and they’re grateful to have me,” Lubangi says. “It’s a blessing to be in this opportunity every year, every time I wake up, knowing that I can be in a place where I can strive, to do my best.”
But luck has little to do with how Lubangi got to where he is today. He started playing basketball at BGC when he was in Grade 6 because his best friend was playing.
Since then, he’s become a leader for the BGC Thunderbolts, who have taken the local (and national) basketball scene by storm since coming together as a group desperate for recreation during COVID.
Read More: ‘It’s more than a sport’: Ottawa’s BGC Thunderbolts making big noise through basketball
Lubangi and the Thunderbolts are currently amid the North Pole Hoops Showcase League’s under-19 spring/summer championship weekend after posting a leading 11-1 record heading into the June 28-29 finals in Burlington.
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That comes on the heels of an undefeated 2024-2025 NPH championship season where the Thunderbolts’ collection of overlooked underdogs rose to the top.
And Lubangi is set to soon achieve another major objective when he moves to Thunder Bay, having earned an opportunity to play for the Lakehead University Thunderwolves’ varsity men’s basketball team through “heart, sacrifice, and a belief in something bigger,” the Thunderbolts highlighted in announcing his commitment.
“I sacrifice so much, and I work so hard every day,” Lubangi underlines. “I love putting in work when no one sees it. I think it’s my favourite thing, just knowing that when someone sees me and from one month to two months, they just think I got better, when, in my opinion, I’ve been putting in work every day.”
Kian Nejad began coaching at 16 years old in BGC’s summer league, and is now the program coordinator for the Thunderbolts. Having some of the squad’s original members now reaching university basketball represents a major milestone moment for BGC.
In his five years leading the Thunderbolts, Nejad has coached Lubangi every year, although he’s known him since he was seven years old.
“Lucky was probably one of the most mature young boys I had the privilege of meeting, and he’s a great young man. I think it’s rare nowadays to find a kid that age to be so mature and focused on his craft,” Nejad highlights. “He’s the ultimate leader. He’s been my captain for who knows how many years. He knows how to separate business and pleasure, and he’s just a great teammate overall, caring, giving, and kind about the community.”
When Lubangi joined BGC, it was not an organized competitive team. However, that allowed Nejad to create not only a team, but a community, and more importantly, a family out of the Ron Kolbus Clubhouse.
“One of the first things (Kian) said in the gym was, we’re not the most skilled in the country, we’re not the most skilled in the city, but we can be the closest,” Lubangi recalls.
While sports was one of Lubangi’s interest as a naturally athletic child, drawing became his first obsession after being influenced by his sister, who did animation. Lubangi even took two-hour bus rides for two years to pursue visual arts in a specialized program at Canterbury High School.
Lubangi’s friends in the west end weren’t fans of his decision to attend Canterbury and wanted him to go to Woodroffe High School instead.
“One of the biggest reasons people wanted me to go to Woodroffe was because of basketball, of course,” recalls Lubangi, who transferred to his home school at Woodroffe before his junior year.
During his time at Canterbury, Lubangi started to view art as more of a hobby rather than a career path, and that’s when he shifted his main focus to basketball.
“Being in high school with them helped so much because we all share the same struggles,” indicates the 2024 Woodroffe grad. “We’d all talk about exams together after practice. We all studied together after practice. It’s like every single person is living the same life.”
While living in the same neighbourhood, going to the same school and playing basketball on the same team, Lubangi and his friends were inseparable.
“The bond we have is beyond crazy. We stay after practice, and we are forced to leave the facility of BGC just because we stay for too long talking. I know it’s a chore for Kian and the other staff to kick us out, but we just enjoy the time we have together. It’s just a blessing,” he underlines. “I think that’s the biggest reason we are the team that we’ve been for the last four years – it’s the bond we’ve had together, because I don’t think we’ve been the most talented team. I think we’ve been the most connected team, and I think that’s all that matters.”
Lubangi’s basketball journey didn’t really start until the pandemic hit, when he was in Grade 8. That’s when Nejad introduced him to the sport, and Lubangi felt inspired since day one.
“It’s just the way he talked about (basketball). I’ve never heard someone talk about something to that degree,” Lubangi reflects. “It helps that I was with him every single day, so I noticed that he wasn’t bluffing; he really, really loved the sport, so it really got me, and then it made me love the sport. It was like his ideal seeped into my head.”
In his final year at the U19 level with the Thunderbolts, Lubangi began studying human kinetics at the University of Ottawa. The season didn’t have a storybook start, with Lubangi getting injured for the first time.
“I used to go around boasting about how I never got injured,” Lubangi smiles, noting that added insult to injury. “It got me so bad, so I will never do that again. I know karma is a real thing now.”
Ultimately, this season has become Lubangi’s most successful and most difficult year at once, he adds, as he coped with the burden of being sidelined for several months.
“A lot of the time, it’d just be me in my own head questioning, ‘Can I get back to the form I was in before?,’ because I was out for a very long time. Ever since I was out, I’m feeling like I’m not as confident,” signals Lubangi, who was able to lean on his teammates whenever he was struggling. “They tell me the right things every time, and in games, even if I’m playing badly for some reason, they’ll put the basketball in my hands. I don’t understand sometimes, but I feel like these guys trust me more than I do.”
It was a challenge to deal with the new realities and emotions, but Nejad encouraged him to focus on the bigger picture of playing university basketball in the future.
“Over time, he found different ways to study the game,” Nejad recounts. “He was watching film, he was coming to practices and helping guide other guys.”
It was stressful for Lubangi at the start of the season knowing he had to make the most of his last opportunity to play at the U19 level and put himself in a position to play for a varsity team.
“Kian told me, ‘I will get you where you want to go if you work as hard as you need to,'” Lubangi recalls. “As soon as I heard that, as soon as I hear work, I’m willing to do it. If where I want to go involves just me working hard, I’ll do that 10 times out of 10. That’s what Kian implemented into me.”
In May, Lucky officially announced his commitment to the Lakehead University Thunderwolves for the upcoming season.
Lubangi was playing in a Mamba men’s league game, where one of the players was a Lakehead alumnus. In addition, Lakehead’s coach had built a strong relationship with Nejad and Lubangi and was in constant contact during the season.
“The Lakehead coach has been so inviting. He’s been very integral in how I’ve been progressing this year, and always catching up with me, seeing how I’m doing. He’s a very respectful man,” illustrates Lubangi, who will continue studying kinesiology.
But even more conveniently and convincingly, Lubangi’s teammate and best friend Keylian Coulibaly just finished his first year with the Thunderwolves.
“Of course, I’m hearing things from Keylian as the season’s going on,” Lubangi adds. “All I’m hearing is positives – a great coach, a great person to be around. As far as it is, there’s a sense of familiarity, knowing that there’s familiar faces and people with familiar goals, like me, people with familiar ideals.”
Lubangi and Coulibaly have known each other since they were kids and have been best friends ever since.
“Keylian Coulibaly is one of my favourite guys,” Lubangi signals. “I love that man with all my heart. Knowing that I could be around him every day while playing the sport we both love, it helps so much, because he’s honestly the second biggest part of my journey after Kian.”
Nejad says that their friendship is one of the most mature relationships he has ever seen.
“They know how to support each other and be there and challenge each other to get better every single day,” Nejad explains. “They probably criticize each other the most on the court, but it’s still constructive, and it’s only to get each other better.
“I think the reason they’re both here now is they’ve had each other, because, you know how it is, iron sharpens iron.”
The Thunderbolts-turned-Thunderwolves family grew even larger on Thursday with the announcement that BGC teammate Eshander Belme will be joining the pair.
Lubangi couldn’t be more pleased to keep his BGC Ottawa connections alive at Lakehead.
“The first thing Kian told me is that you guys can’t go anywhere in the sport if you don’t love it,” Lubangi highlights. “BGC was a seed that sprouted everything for me. It really grew me as a person, as a man, in my opinion. BGC has been the biggest reason for where I am and where I’ve gotten to.”
Read More of our 2025 High School Best Series as we tip our caps to top local student-athletes at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-High-School-Best-2025
