HIGH ACHIEVERS: Basketball builder Hazel Miner leads charge of 12 inductees onto Nepean Sports Wall of Fame

By Martin Cleary

When Debbie Miner was working her way through the elementary and high school systems, she developed a love of basketball.

But she couldn’t get enough of it, especially when she attended Bell High School, since the Bruins’ season lasted about nine weeks.

One day, she brought that concern home to her mother Hazel and asked if she could find a way for her and several of her peers to experience a higher level of competitive basketball.

Hazel’s response to her eldest daughter was typical of a supporting parent: “I’ll try,” she said, not knowing where to start or whether this request would take her down an eye-opening highway or a dead end.

A talented catcher in her youth and a member of the 1955 Western Canada women’s fastball championship team called the Hub City Ramblers, Miner knew nothing about basketball.

But when she put her mind and energy to it, she created some slam-dunk programs well before slam dunks became the sizzle of the game.

In 1970, Miner created the Nepean Amateur Basketball Association with the assistance of Nepean recreation director Bill Levesque, who helped her book court times at several schools.

They took a chance and hit the jackpot.

The word was put out into the growing Nepean community about the start of a recreational basketball league. In no time, Miner had registered enough players for six girls’ and six boys’ teams in the U14 category. She served as the NABA president from 1971-83.

Three years later, she established the Ottawa Rookies Basketball Club, which was the first elite girls’ junior competitive opportunity in Ottawa. Younger midget and bantam teams were to follow to complete the player development plan.

Miner managed the Rookies program and let coaches Warren Sutton (1973-74) and Bob Butler (1974-75 to 1988-89) guide the junior players to Ontario titles, entry into two Canadian senior women’s championships as well as university tournaments and berths on national and Olympic teams.

The Ontario Basketball Association took notice of Miner’s accomplishments and appointed her its director of player development for 15 years from 1974-88.

Miner stepped away from basketball in the spring of 1989. The Rookies program existed for one more year.

When her eldest daughter asked her about creating a higher level of basketball for girls in Ottawa, Miner was an overachieving overachiever during her 20-year run, which has been recognized many times.

On Oct. 23, Miner will be in the spotlight once again as one of a dozen inductees onto the Nepean Sports Wall of Fame in a ceremony at the Nepean Sportsplex.

Miner, 90, was shocked by her latest honour, which will share a special place alongside her induction into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame (builder, 2006), the Ontario Basketball Hall of Fame (builder, 2010) and the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame (team, 1989) with the 1955 Hub City Ramblers.

“I said ‘pardon,’” Miner recalled, when Pam Coburn, who was her nominator, let her know she had been selected to the Nepean Sports Wall of Fame induction class of 2025. “What is it I was supposed to have done?”

Miner, who also won the Gord Trivett Memorial Trophy as Ottawa’s sportsman of the year in 1981, watched the Ottawa Rookies junior team win numerous Ontario titles, including five in a row from 1984-89. In 1985, the Rookies’ junior, midget and bantam teams celebrated provincial championship gold medals.

Finding competition for the talented junior team wasn’t always easy, even against university and senior women’s clubs. The Rookies regularly defeated university teams in Ontario and the United States and qualified for two Canadian women’s senior championships, finishing in fifth place both years.

The Rookies produced dozens of talented players, including Donna Hobin, who represented Canada at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, and Andrea Blackwell, who played at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Hobin recently passed away at age 68.

Sisters Janet and Carolyn Swords earned berths on Canada’s national senior and junior women’s team respectively. Rookies players regularly played for university teams, including Laura Gillespie, Pam Coburn and Ingrid Kihl.

Miner was the backbone of the Rookies organization, working behind the scenes, but also having a non-coaching presence at games and practices.

“I managed the team. I did the travel, the hotel (reservations) and got schools for practices,” Miner said. “I didn’t do a lot of coaching, but I was at every practice and I travelled on weekends.

“It was tough to find competition. We were beating university teams and no one wanted to play us.”

One year, the junior-aged Rookies ran away from the University of Toronto women’s team 71-46 and the University of Windsor 81-26.

The Nepean Sports Wall of Fame honours athletes, coaches, builders and teams from its west-end Ottawa region every two years. The addition of 12 more inductees this year will bring the Wall’s exclusive membership to 87 individual athletes, coaches and builders and four teams.

The Class of 2025 is completed by:

· Brianna Hennessy, athlete, para canoeing, the first Canadian to win a para canoe medal (silver) at the Paralympic Games last year in Paris in the VL2 class and was Canada’s co-flag bearer at the closing ceremony.

· Julie Brousseau, athlete, swimming, helped Canada place fourth in the women’s 4×200-metre freestyle relay at her first Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024; winner of multiple international and domestic medals, including a record-tying 11 at the 2022 Canada Summer Games.

· Kayla Maduk, athlete, taekwondo, won several medals at the world taekwondo championships between 2011 and 2015; inspiring the next generation of martial artists with her Believe program.

· Katie Xu, athlete, figure skating and swimming, captured multiple medals at Canadian and world-class Special Olympic figure skating competitions, and mainstream masters swimming meets.

· Kate Miller, athlete, diving, earned a gold medal at the world junior diving championships and a silver at the Pan-Am Games, placed fourth in women’s 10-metre synchro at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

· Mark Moors, athlete, football, won the 1984 Grey Cup with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers during his 10-year career in the CFL and a Vanier Cup with Acadia University in 1979.

· Mike Racicot, athlete, extreme sports/skateboarding, posthumously, spearheaded the charge for the Walter Baker skatepark; was a world-renowned BASE jumper before his death in 2018.

· Tony House, coach, basketball, guided various teams to many provincial and national championships; founded the Canada Topflight Academy 10 years ago to develop elite high school student-athletes.

· David Rattray, builder, a former Nepean Sports Wall of Fame chair who helped revitalize the Wall through digital upgrades, fund raising and outreach; a significant national and local community leader and volunteer.

· Gerry LaPorte, builder, lawn bowls, a leader at the Ottawa and Ontario levels; president of the Nepean Lawn Bowls Club; an advocate for inclusivity in lawn bowls.

· Bill Mantle, builder, sailing, posthumously, a co-founder of the Nepean Sailing Club in the late 1970s, built a recreational landmark to serve thousands of members annually.