TORONTO (April 17, 2023) – Canada Basketball Foundation announced Monday the establishment of the Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching Award.

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“There’s a need today for transformational coaches, people who are going to change lives,” said Mike MacKay, Performance Manager, Women's High Performance. “The Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching Award is in honour of my parents, James and Ruth MacKay, and how they were very transformational.” 

“[The award] is established to recognize the coach who develops competent, confident, connected, future leaders with character and they’re going to be inspirational, role models, challenge people to think and treat them as individuals,” MacKay said.

The Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching Award will recognize outstanding coaches for their dedication and coaching leadership, while developing competent, connected, competitive, confident future leaders with character.

Each year, the Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching Award will present up to two recipients each with a $2,500 bursary. Of the annual awards, one (1) will be specifically given to a female-identified coach working with female athletes. 

The Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching Award aims to promote, and strengthen leadership and culture in basketball, while also celebrating diverse and inclusive leaders in delivering positive sport experiences. Applications will be evaluated and prioritized using an equity, diversity, and inclusion scorecard based on the coach’s efforts to address systemic barriers to sport and recreation.

This award is inspired by James and Ruth MacKay, parents of Mike MacKay, who exemplified the qualities of transformational parenting, as well as all the transformational coaches who’ve coached and worked with Mike throughout his coaching journey.

To be eligible, nominees must be at least 18 years of age, a resident of Canada (of at least 12 months), have started their basketball coaching pathway and will be completing or have completed at least one NCCP basketball training course, and must have coached for at least one year.

Nominations must be submitted virtually, along with two written reference letters of support, from two different individuals.  Interested applicants are encouraged to submit an application HERE ahead of the deadline on June 1^st, 2023.

For further questions or inquiries about the Mike MacKay ‘Transformational’ Coaching Award, applicants are encouraged to contact cbfoundation@basketball.ca or visit basketball.ca.

The award will be distributed through the Canada Basketball Foundation™, a registered charitable organization dedicated to unifying Canada as a basketball nation by supporting safe, equitable, and inclusive basketball programming. Working directly with Canada Basketball, the Canada Basketball Foundation aims to remove access barriers in community organizations who are focused on delivering programs related to coaching and officiating, leadership and skill development, and serving equity-deserving youth groups across Canada.

For more information on the Canada Basketball Foundation™ and to donate to help support the organization’s mission to foster safe, diverse, equitable and inclusive basketball opportunities for coaches across Canada, click here.