River Lions’ Boucard back in den for a 4th year
Montreal native Guillaume Boucard again will make St. Catharines his summer home away from home.
The six-foot-six guard called returning to the Niagara River Lions for a third Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) season and a fourth year overall a slam dunk.
“Going back to the Niagara River Lions for a fourth season was one of the easiest decisions to make. I’m grateful to have the chance to be around such a professional and hungry organization once again, and I am looking forward to competing for a championship,” said one of the longest-tenured River Lions and the CEBL’S inaugural Canadian player of the year, after re-signing with the team.
General manager-head coach Victor Raso is looking forward to having Boucard back in the Niagara lineup for a third summer.
“Guillaume is a rock for our franchise. He understands exactly what we’re all about, and he understands our expectations for our team this season,” Raso said. “In his fourth season as a River Lion, fans can expect to see the type of player who was the 2019 CEBL Canadian of the Year. As always, it’s a pleasure to have ‘G’ back with us.”
Currently playing pro basketball in France where he is averaging 16.5 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists in eight games so far with FC Mulhouse, Boucard was also named to the CEBL’S first all-star team in 2019 after pacing regular-season champion Niagara in points per game, with 16.1, and average minutes played per game, 31.
Last year, he averaged 5.7 points per game and had a team-high 5.6 rebounds as the host River Lions went 2-5 at the 2020 Summer Series, a singlesite championship tournament played without spectators at Meridian Centre in St. Catharines.
In their first season in the CEBL, a spring-summer pro league, the 15-5 River Lions were upset in the semifinals by the fourth-seeded Hamilton Honey Badgers, who were 10-10, after going into championship weekend in Saskatoon as top seed.
Boucard and Raso share a hoops history that dates back to the 2012-13 Ontario University Athletics season.
Before turning pro, Boucard played five years at Carleton University in Ottawa, taking five men’s national basketball championships in a row from 2011 to ’16. Raso was Ravens captain and Boucard’s teammate for the ’13 and ’14 championship teams and won a third as an assistant on Dave Smart’s coaching staff.
In ’17-18, Raso was lead assistant to his father, Joe, then the team’s head coach, in the River Lions’ third and final season playing in the fall-winter National Basketball League of Canada. Boucard averaged 14.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.95 assists seeing action in 43 of the team’s 44 games that season.
Besides playing with FC Mulhouse for a second season, Boucard has also competed professionally in Atlantic Canada with the Island Storm, of Prince Edward Island, St. John’s Edge in Newfoundland and Sluneta Usti nad Labem in the Czech Republic.