Coach gets to see how the other half plays
New River Lions assistant Boiago is coaching men’s hoops for the first time
Danielle Boiago has just completed her teacher education, but she is still very much a student of the game when it comes to basketball and what it takes to become a head coach at the post-secondary level.
The 26-year-old Hamilton native, an assistant on the women’s team at McMaster University, hopes to take another step in that direction when the Canadian Elite Basketball League gets underway this season, hopefully in July.
As the only newcomer to Niagara River Lions general manager-head coach Victor Raso’s staff, she will be coaching professional players for the first time.
Boiago, the 2016-17 U SPORTS allCanadian player of the year when she played hoops at McMaster, also will be working with male players for the first time.
Given that the Hamilton Honey Badgers, the fourth seed that upset No. 1 seed Niagara in the CEBL semifinals, had a female head coach in Chantal Vallée, Boiago isn’t worried her words at River Lions practices and games will fall on deaf ears.
“I don’t think so, I think that the guys that Victor has on the team are very respectful,” she said. “At the end of the day, we all have the same goal: We all want to get better.
“I hope that’s the way basketball is going, that it’s not going to be news when there’s a woman on a male staff.”
Boiago is joining a River Lions staff that includes Doyle Anthony, Mick Bett and Jeff Joseph, all returning for a second season with the team.
“I’m looking forward to working with Jeff, Mick and Doyle as they return to our team for Year 2,” said Raso, the CEBL 2019 coach of the year, “and I’m thrilled that we have added Danielle Boiago, a rising star in the coaches world, to our team.”
Boiago’s experience of playing one season professionally in the Netherlands will help her relate to the players on the St. Catharines-based River Lions, a development-first team playing a spring-summer schedule in Canada Basketball’s top men’s division.
“I know their goals are to become better and obviously they want to win,” she said. “Ultimately, player development — especially, in this league — is crucial. It’s key.
“I understand what they’re going through. I understand the grinds that it takes. This is their summer, they’re away from their homes, their families. They’re here just to get better.”
Developing for the future and winning now aren’t mutually exclusive as far as Boiago is concerned.
“I think it’s important for professional athletes to realize that obviously they need their individual stats and they need their player development and stuff like that,” she said. “But, at the end of the day, the fun part of basketball is winning, so, when you can get a group of guys together who are all on the same page in terms of that, you’ll have a really successful season like the River Lions had last year.
“Winning is super important. Vic has created this culture where the guys on his team really want to win. We all really want to win.”
Boiago, who is returning for a second season as an assistant to McMaster women’s head Theresa Burns, had no trepidation about taking the position with the River Lions.
“I’ve known Victor for a long time, and we have built a trusting relationship. I think he sees something in me, and I think he feels I can bring something to the team,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity that he has given me to really grow and develop my coaching and my leadership under him,” Boiago added.
“I think it will be a great challenge for me. I’m excited and I’m looking forward to it.”
At McMaster, Boiago has many responsibilities in a “full assistant role” on Burns’ staff.
“I do a lot of film, I do a lot of player development, and then in practice and games providing feedback and insight to coach Burns,” Boiago said.
“She’s been my biggest role model in coaching and in basketball.”
Burns supports Boiago’s decision to spend the Ontario Universities Athletics off-season coaching basketball.
“She’s hopeful that what I learn with the River Lions I bring back to Mac, so we can all work together,” Boiago said. “The ultimate goal is just to develop our players.”
Her duties with the River Lions will primarily focus on video.
“Victor has some very knowledgeable assistant coaches who have a lot of experience with the men’s game,” she said. “I’m helping with film and I coming in doing whatever he needs, wherever he sees that I can fit.”
For Boiago, the transition to the sidelines from the court wasn’t seamless. Like many players who excelled at a high level and played the game almost instinctively, she had trouble translating that instinct into instruction.
“I definitely struggled with that in my first year of coaching. It was kind of, ‘Why don’t these players just go out and do what I’m thinking in my head,’ ” she recalled. “As you gain coaching experience, you watch other coaches and realize that you need to be able to break things down for players who aren’t going to be able to do things and see things the way you do. That’s helped me develop as a coach, because it’s encouraged me to think more about how other players think and how other players see the game, not how I see the game.”
When Boiago, who played her high school hoops at St. Thomas More in Hamilton, first started coaching she also found herself on the fence of “I still want to be playing.”
She wants to become a teacher, but also would like to become a head coach in the OUA.
“I think I’m definitely going in that direction. Coach Burns is kind of moulding me and shaping me to a U SPORTS coach,” she said. “I’ve learned a ton under her, and I know I have so much more to learn.
“I think this experience with Vic and his coaching staff and the guys this summer is really going to help me learn even more.”
“I hope that’s the way basketball is going, that it’s not going to be news when there’s a woman on a male staff.” DANIELLE BOIAGO NIAGARA RIVER LIONS ASSISTANT COACH