Notre Dame graduate Knighted
Rao is hired as head coach at Niagara College
Christopher Rao’s first head coaching position at the postsecondary level will also be a hoops homecoming for the Welland native.
Niagara College announced Thursday that Rao, 24, will succeed Mike Beccaria, who won’t be returning for a seventh season after leading the Knights to a bronze medal at the Ontario championships.
Rao, the son of Brock University women’s basketball head coach Mike Rao, spent three seasons as an assistant with the men’s program at Cape Breton University and another with the men’s team at Acadia University.
“Though young in age, Chris has been coaching post-secondary basketball for the last few years and has gained the experience and respect of the athletes,” associate athletics and recreation director Michele O’Keefe said in welcoming the Notre Dame College School graduate to the region’s community college.
Rao, who earned a degree in education at Cape Breton University, isn’t worried about coaching female players for the first time.
“Coaching is coaching. At the end of the day, it’s about connecting and working with individuals,” he said.
“If you’re able to do that, success and positive culture will follow.”
Rao, who was coached by his father in high school, hopes to form a father-and-son team with the goal of providing the best experience for student-athletes at both the college and the university.
“Being back home and near family is obviously very exciting,” he said. “I’m extremely proud of my dad and what he does done with the Brock women’s basketball program. We will continue to support each other as we have all along.”
Rao officially takes over the Niagara women’s program Aug. 15 after winding up his coaching duties with Basketball Nova Scotia’s boys under 15 program. Thursday’s hire leaves one head coaching position at the college unfilled. A search for Natasha Spaling’s successor as women’s volleyball coach is ongoing. Spaling left Niagara to take a full-time assistant position at Queen’s University in Kingston after leading to the Knights to a silver medal at the provincial championships.