TORONTO, Ont. (April 3, 2023) – Canada Basketball announced Monday that Fabienne Blizzard has been selected to lead Canada at this summer’s FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championship.

“It’s exciting. I’m looking forward to it,” said Blizzard. “For me, to be able to do this at this level with everyone, and with everything I've gathered from everyone — I love the opportunity to be able to make all the young women in Canada excited about playing basketball.”

Blizzard will make her head coaching debut for Canada after being an assistant coach with various women’s age-group teams over the past several years, including last summer on Cheryl Jean-Paul’s staff that narrowly missed the podium and finished fourth at the FIBA U17 Women's World Cup 2022. She also spent several years coaching Ontario’s provincial teams and as a head coach for Ontario U15 and U17 provincial teams, leading her teams to three national titles in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The co-founder of Capital Courts Academy, Blizzard has been actively involved in girls basketball as a coach and mentor following a hall of fame playing career with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. Following graduation, she stayed on with her alma mater as an assistant coach for the Gee Gees from 1994-98, before ultimately serving as the team's head coach during the 1998-99 season.

Blizzard will be joined by assistant coaches Isabel Ormond and Dianna Ros, who will also take on a performance analyst role with the team.

After three years as an Apprentice Coach/Team Manager with Canada’s U18/U19 Women’s National Team program, Ormond will transition to an assistant coach role for Canada this summer. Ormond is also currently the Associate Head Coach of the University of Alberta Pandas women’s basketball program.

Ros will make her coaching debut for Canada this summer coming off her first season as the head coach of Bishop’s women’s basketball program, where she led the Gaiters to a 14-2 regular season record, first in the RSEQ, and a trip to the conference championship game. Ros has been actively involved with Basketball Québec and has coached several provincial teams.

The FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championship will run June 12-18, 2023. The field will comprise the top eight teams from across the Americas zone, divided into two groups of four teams each. The top four teams in the event will successfully qualify for next summer’s FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2024.

Last week, Canada Basketball hosted a Women's High Performance National Team Age-Group Assessment Camp at Niagara College from March 25-29, 2023. Bringing together 36 athletes from across the country, the camp provides a national training environment with an international focus for top identified athletes in a variety of age groups ranging from those born in 2004 and later.  

Prior to the camp, Canada Basketball’s Women’s High Performance program also hosted a technical summit to continue the professional development of its women national team NextGen coaches. The summit introduced the technical points of emphasis from the Senior Women’s National Team staff, helped to prepare for the upcoming age-group assessment camp and summer national teams, as well as provided staff time together to build team culture and trust through shared experiences.

Canada is currently ranked 5th overall in the FIBA women’s age-group rankings, presented by Nike, up three spots following the conclusion of the FIBA 2022 Youth Events.