Growing up in Nova Scotia as a kid, Jalynn Skeir never really went to the ocean. Even though people typically associate the East Coast with the ocean, Skeir preferred to go to her grandparents’ cottage by the lake, where she had some of her fondest memories with her family. It wasn’t until she met her now partner, who grew up loving the ocean in Nova Scotia that Skeir began to warm up to the ocean life.

“I was never an ocean person, but now I have this crazy love for being around the ocean,” she said. Falling in love with the ocean on the East Coast wasn’t the only evolution in her journey. Basketball, a big part of Skeir’s life, would also prove to change and evolve over time.

Jalynn’s history as a basketball player spans across USports, where she won a conference championship with Cape Breton University, to playing for the Halifax Hornets in the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association (MWBA). 

She always knew she wanted to become a coach, but transitioning from player to coach was difficult. Skeir recalls conversations with her young athletes, finding she could still relate to them. “I feel like slowly, that transition helped me just learn that I can still be relatable, but learning how to draw the line of coach, friend, confidant, I think it's still something that is hard to balance,” she said.

Making that transition, she was still young and without much coaching experience. Skeir mentions that her initial strategy was to pass along the coaching that she received as a player. As she developed her coaching even more, Jalynn started to recognize how to balance being someone in a position of authority while still being someone young basketball players felt comfortable talking to.

“I think it helps gain respect from the athletes and them wanting to play for you and connect. And I think that's one of the benefits of being a young coach. But I do think it goes really unnoticed how hard it is to navigate being a young coach and having that respect, but also that boundary.”

Basketball can take you all over the globe, and for Jalynn Skeir, it took her across the country. After connecting with Mike MacKay, who works with the Women’s High Performance (WHP) team, she heard that Canada Basketball would hold a training camp with the U16 Women’s National Team last spring. 

One of Skeir’s athletes had been invited to this training camp, and that’s when her interest peaked. In the email, she saw another Nova Scotian connection, Brandi Mills. Knowing both MacKay and Mills, Skeir wondered if she could go and observe the camp.

After talking it over with Western University’s Women’s Basketball Head Coach Nate McKibbon, Jalynn decided to to just go through with it and buy the plane ticket to Niagara. Coach McKibbon told her, "if you volunteer, you put yourself out there. It can be a little nerve-wracking, but they [Canada Basketball] would notice [you].”

“In a weird way, I think it all just fell into place.”

Skeir joined the U16 team not long after the spring training camp, and that team won silver at the FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championship 2023 in Mexico. Skeir had made it on their radar and secured a very important coaching spot with the team.

Her efforts led to high recognition, winning her the inaugural Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching Award in November 2023. Along with the award came a $2,500 bursary for coaching and basketball leadership. This award has helped Skeir immensely with finding more coaching opportunities. 

Since receiving the award, Skeir has taken the funding back to her Nova Scotian roots, participated in several coaching programs since. “Dal[housie] had a really cool opportunity where they turned a tournament that they had into a coaching development scenario where they invited all the coaches that were coming to coach in the tournament to lead open practices and give some sessions,” she said.

Skeir is also a part of the Black and Indigenous Coaching Mentorship Program, led by Ann Dodge and her husband, Mark Smith - members of the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame. Skeir names Dodge as one of her biggest mentors during her player-to-coach journey, and continues to use the resources she receives to further her coaching journey. 

“I try to really enforce that notion of leadership and building leadership qualities and skills,” she said. “The goal is to produce a result on the court.”

What legacy would she like to leave behind? Positive impact and connections. 

“[A] legacy is the idea that you don't know what you've left behind. But I hope that kids who play for me or have been around me in a gym have gotten the notion of positive leadership and want to become young leaders. I hope they want to start coaching or give [back to] their communities… I think it would be really nice if, down the line, people thought about their time with me, and that came to mind.”

And just like her eventual love for the ocean, Jalynn Skeir’s evolution through basketball continues to be on the rise.