CEBL Announces Coaching Staff For Basketball Champions League of Americas

The Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) announced Wednesday the coaching staff of the 2021 CEBL champion Edmonton Stingers who will represent Canada in the upcoming Basketball Champions League of Americas (BCLA). The BCLA brings together 12 teams representing seven countries from the Americas, competing over the course of four months to win a berth in the 2023 FIBA International Cup, one of professional basketball’s most prestigious international competitions. The BCLA begins with Edmonton traveling to Nicaragua to begin pool play December 13.



Jermaine Small, a two-time and current CEBL Coach of the Year with the Edmonton Stingers, will serve as General Manager and Head Coach of the Stingers BCLA team. He will be joined by assistant coaches Charles Dube-Brais and Victor Raso. Roy Rana has been named as a special assistant to Small. 

As the winningest coach in CEBL history with a 32-4 record in two-and-a-half seasons guiding the Edmonton Stingers, Small led Edmonton to back-to-back CEBL Championships in 2020 and 2021. Aside from his CEBL duties, Small is also head coach of the University of Lethbridge men’s basketball program of the Canada West division of U SPORTS.

Dubé-Brais is head coach of the Ottawa BlackJacks, where he led the second-year CEBL franchise to a semifinal appearance at CEBL Championship Weekend. As part of his extensive coaching resume, Dubé-Brais served as assistant coach with Raptors 905 of the NBA G League in 2018-19 and served as guest coach in the NBA Summer League with the San Antonio Spurs from 2015-2017.

Raso has been the general manager and head coach of the Niagara River Lions, since the CEBL’s inaugural season in 2019 when he led the team to a league-best record of 15-5. Raso led Niagara to a 10-4 regular season and into the championship game in 2021. Raso won back-to-back national university titles in 2013 and 2014 as captain of Carleton University before taking on the role of assistant coach for with the Ravens, where he earned his third championship title alongside the winningest head coach in U SPORTS men’s basketball history, Dave Smart.

Serving as a special assistant and advisor to the Stingers coaching staff will be Small’s high school coach, Roy Rana, who is currently an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings of the NBA. Rana served as head coach Ryerson University for nearly 10 years where he led the Rams to five consecutive U SPORTS Final 8 tournament appearances and their first-ever U SPORTS silver medal in 2017. That same year Rana also led Canada to a historic first-ever World Championship in FIBA competition, when he led the 2017 U19 men’s national team to a gold medal in the FIBA Under-19 World Championship.

Small and Rana also have an extensive history of coaching together. After finishing his playing career at Houghton College, in upstate New York, Small became a volunteer coach for two years under Rana at Eastern Commerce Institute in Toronto before joining his coaching staff at Ryerson University in 2012 where he spent three seasons.

The CEBL also announced the management team of the Stingers for the BCLA competition. Joe Raso, senior director of basketball operations for the CEBL, will serve in that capacity for the BCLA’s. Antwi Atuahene has been named assistant general manager, and Andreas Morse as manager of basketball operations.

The BCLA features 12 teams representing seven countries across the Americas, including Quimsa, Boca Jrs and Obras from Argentina, São Paulo, Minas, and returning champion Flamengo from Brazil, Bigua, and Nacional from Uruguay, UdeC from Chile, Cangrejeros from Puerto Rico, season two runner-up Real Estelí from Nicaragua, and the Edmonton Stingers. The Stingers earned the right to represent Canada by virtue of winning the 2021 CEBL Championship. Each of the 12 teams will host games during the group stage. The Stingers were assigned to Group A along with Real Estelí from Nicaragua, and Cangrejeros from Puerto Rico. The full schedule can be found here. More details on Canada’s host location and venue will be announced in the coming weeks.

The CEBL begins its fourth season in May 2022. A league created by Canadians for Canadians, the CEBL has the highest percentage of Canadian players of any professional league in the country, with 75 percent of its current rosters being Canadians. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international leagues, the Canadian National team program, and top NCAA programs as well as U SPORTS. The only First Division Professional League Partner of Canada Basketball, the CEBL season runs from May through August. Head to CEBL.ca for more information or follow us (@cebleague) on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook & YouTube.

The Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA) is the best continental league in the Americas. It’s created through an innovative partnership between FIBA, federations and leagues with 12 teams competing from the continent.

Quotes:

“With our first-ever entry into the BCLA’s I am pleased to appoint three of our league’s top coaches to lead our inaugural BCLA participation as we represent Canada on the global stage. Back-to-back league champion and two-time CEBL Coach of the Year Jermaine Small is joined another Coach of the Year winner in Vic Raso, along with the international experience of Charles Dubé-Brais gives us an excellent staff of coaches that will have the Stingers prepared to compete at the highest level against some of the best teams in the world.” Mike Morreale, Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, CEBL.

“It is a tremendous honour to represent the CEBL and Edmonton Stingers in this prestigious international event. I'm really excited for the opportunity to showcase our talent as the newcomers in this (BCLA) competition.” Jermaine Small, Head Coach and General Manager

"I’m really excited about joining the coaching staff for the upcoming BCL Americas. It is an honour for us to represent our country internationally, and I’m glad we’ll have an opportunity to put our combined experiences together in order to perform at the highest level and make Canada and the CEBL proud.” Charles Dubé-Brais, Assistant Coach

"I'm excited to be a part of Coach Small's staff for the Edmonton Stingers BCLA team. I look forward to helping the Stingers compete on the international stage, and look forward to representing the CEBL as best as we can!" Victor Raso, Assistant Coach

Media Contact:

Ansh Sanyal
Sr. Director, Brand & Marketing
CEBL
asanyal@cebl.ca