Chantal Vallée Becomes 1st Woman to Be Named Men's Basketball HC and GM
Chantal Vallee was named the general manager and head coach of the Hamilton Honey Badgers, a team created for the new Canadian Elite Basketball League, on Wednesday, and became the first woman to hold those roles simultaneously for a men's professional basketball team.
The Honey Badgers announced the hiring on their official website. The CEBL is scheduled to debut in the spring of 2019.
Vallee spent the previous 13 years as the head coach of the University of Windsor Lancers women's team at the collegiate level in Canada.
She led the program to 10 consecutive appearances in the Ontario University Athletics final four, including five straight championships, starting in 2011.
"One of my favorite sayings is success and winning is not about championships. It's about relationships," Vallee told Chicco Nacion of CBC Sports in 2017. "It's taught me so much about relationships in terms of management and leadership—how to work with and empower people you work with in a much better way."
She's taken a sabbatical from the Lancers to accept the Hamilton job.
Vallee follows in the footsteps of Nancy Lieberman, who served as head coach of men's teams in the G League (Texas Legends) and the BIG3 (Power).