Victor Lapeña hired as the new head coach of Team Canada's Senior Women's Basketball Team
Victor Lapeña hired as the new coach and Noelle Quinn is hired as the lead assistant coach.
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Last week, Team Canada Basketball named Víctor Lapeña the new head coach of the Senior Women's National Team and Noelle Quinn as the lead assistant coach. Lapeña is the current head coach of Fenerbahçe in the Turkish Super League, and Quinn is the current head coach of the Seattle Storm. Carly Clarke and Steve Baur, who were also a part of previous coach Lisa Thomaidis’s staff, will stay on as assistant coaches. Lapeña signed a multi-year contract that will run through the 2024 Olympic Games held in Paris, France.
At a press conference to introduce the new coaches, Denise Dignard, Team Canada’s general manager and executive vice-president of high performance, spoke of why they hired Lapeña and Quinn. “Following an extensive international search for our next Senior Women’s National Team head coach, we’re thrilled to have Víctor and Noelle lead our program over the next three years into the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Our players asked us to find the best candidates with a blend of both professional and international FIBA women’s coaching experience, and with both we firmly believe that we have exceeded those expectations and positioned this program for continued growth for years to come.”
Michael Bartlett, president & CEO of Canada Basketball, said the following about Lapeña and Quinn being hired in a statement. “Canada Basketball has made a promise to our players that we will work tirelessly to invest in winning resources to help propel our teams to the next level in international basketball. In hiring Víctor and Noelle, proven winners on the global women's basketball stage, we have reaffirmed this promise to our Senior Women’s National Team athletes as we work to achieve our podium ambitions.”
Lapeña comes in with plenty of experience. He has been a part of the Spanish National Federation, where he has captured many medals, both with the Spanish Senior Women’s National Basketball Team as well as Spanish age-groups teams.
Since he became the head coach of Fenerbahçe, he has led his team to the Turkish Women’s Basketball Presidental Cup in 2019, the Turkish Women’s Basketball Cup in 2020 and the Women’s Basketball Super League Title last year.
“I'm very excited to be here to be part of the Canadian National Team,” Lapeña said at his introduction. “The program of the Canadian federation is one of the best in the world, and now I'm part of this program and I will do my best to boost the national team to the next level.”
Quinn, who recently renewed her coaching contract with the Seattle Storm, also spoke on why she decided to come into the program and help Lapeña out. “Víctor, his vision is amazing,” Quinn said. “You [can] feel his energy and his love and his passion and in that role, for me, I think the biggest thing is to support that. I pride myself on being the ultimate teammate. So whatever [is needed], I will be that.”
Prior to becoming the head coach of the Storm, Quinn played in the WNBA as well as overseas in many countries, such as Russia, Lithuania, Israel, France and Turkey.
Lapeña doesn’t have much time to savor the moment because Canada hopes to qualify for the FIBA World Cup. The qualifying tournament happens in less than a month. Canada will face Japan, the host nation on Feb.10th, Bosnia and Herzegovina on Feb. 12th and Belarus on Feb. 13th. All the games will be played in Osaka, Japan.
Belgrade (Serbia) and Washington D.C. (USA) will host the other qualifying tournaments. Three teams from each qualifying tournament will advance to the World Cup which will be held in Australia later this year.
Lapeña will take over a roster that includes Minnesota Lynx player Natalie Achonwa. Other notable players include Bridget Carleton as well as current Dynamo Novosibirsk (Russia) player Kayla Alexander. Kia Nurse injured her ACL during the past WNBA semifinals (Phoenix vs Las Vegas) and is not available for the tournament. Current NCAA players Laeticia Amihere, Aaliyah Edwards and Shaina Pellington will likely not be available because they will be in the middle of their college seasons.
Lapeña said that he and his staff will start right away preparing for the tournament and that it will be difficult, but that he enjoys the process and that they will see the results in one month’s time.
Canada is currently ranked fourth in the world and looks to bounce back after disappointing results in the 2021 Olympic Games where they were eliminated in the preliminary round of the Games.
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