In a move being heralded as ground-breaking for the advancement of women in the near-exclusive male bastion of professional sports management, the 43-year-old was introduced on Thursday as both the general manager and head coach of the Hamilton Honey Badgers [Ontario, Canada].<\/p>\n
Chantal Vall\u00e9e<\/strong> recalls the moment when she was a teenager growing up in the Montreal area that she informed her parents she wanted to become a coach.<\/p>\n At that time, it didn\u2019t have to be a basketball coach, although that was the direction she was leaning after falling in love with the game while playing it through school.<\/p>\n Vall\u00e9e was attending a CEGEP but was having difficulty finding a French-speaking women\u2019s team to play on. \u201cIt was kind of, \u2018Well, if I can\u2019t play, I\u2019m going to coach,\u2019 \u201d she said, her steely resolve already starting to take hold. \u201cIt was a way to satisfy my competitive need.\u201d<\/p>\n Her parents were not enthralled when she informed them of her desired career path. It was not that they were unsupportive of her dreams, she said. They were just being, well, parental.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember them saying like, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 \u201d Vall\u00e9e recalled. \u201c \u2019That doesn\u2019t exist [for a woman]. People don\u2019t earn a living being a coach.\u2019 They said I should try to find a real job.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe it was because I didn\u2019t want to be a hockey coach for the Montreal Canadiens,\u201d she added with a laugh.<\/p>\n Maybe that\u2019s not as far-fetched now.<\/p>\n In a move being heralded as ground-breaking for the advancement of women in the near-exclusive male bastion of professional sports management, the 43-year-old was introduced on Thursday as both the general manager and head coach of the Hamilton Honey Badgers.<\/p>\n The Honey Badgers are a men\u2019s pro team in the fledgling Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL), which is slated to begin play in May.<\/p>\n Vall\u00e9e is the first woman in basketball history to hold both front-office positions and only the second woman ever to serve as a head coach of a male pro basketball team. The first was Nancy Lieberman, who coached the Texas Legends in the NBA Development League, now known as the G League, for the 2010-11 season.<\/p>\n And it was Lieberman, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in the United States, who was among the thousands to take to social media to hail Vall\u00e9e after word spread of her new job.<\/p>\n \u201cCongratulation Chantal,\u201d Lieberman wrote on her official Twitter account. \u201cI know you\u2019ll be a rock star. Nice Honey Badgers.\u201d<\/p>\n For Vall\u00e9e, who cut her coaching teeth the past 13 years at the University of Windsor, moulding the women\u2019s team into a perennial powerhouse (five national titles from 2011-15), the outpouring of support caught her a bit off guard.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought there was going to be a little bit of traction but for me, this is what I do for a living,\u201d she said during an interview on Thursday. \u201cI\u2019m a coach.<\/p>\n \u201cI never expected to be coaching guys and I never looked for it either. So it wasn\u2019t like a goal of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n But to others who have forged a living in the male-dominated executive wing that exists in pro sports, the ascension of a woman to a position of power, even in a league just getting started, is viewed as welcome news.<\/p>\n Mich\u00e8le B\u00e9langer, who is in her 40th season as the head women\u2019s basketball coach at the University of Toronto, said the move by the Honey Badgers to hire Vall\u00e9e is fantastic. \u201cIt\u2019s great for women over all, in all fields,\u201d she said. \u201cShe\u2019s cracked that boardroom ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n B\u00e9langer said this is not something that would have happened even five years ago.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s changed?<\/p>\n \u201cYou know what, I strongly believe \u2013 and I don\u2019t want to say much about it \u2013 but I think the #MeToo movement has really altered people\u2019s thoughts. And women have become a little bit more, I guess we\u2019re being noticed \u2013 be it actors, politicians, as well as in athletics.<\/p>\n \u201cThe men are also supporting the women\u2019s movement, in athletics as well as in business. I honestly believe that the #MeToo movement has created a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Glen Grunwald, the former general manager of the Toronto Raptors, said he got to know Vall\u00e9e during his recent tenure as athletic director at Hamilton\u2019s McMaster University.<\/p>\n Now the chief executive of Canada Basketball, Grunwald said he has no doubt Vall\u00e9e will be a forceful presence when it comes to directing a professional men\u2019s basketball outfit.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019ll be just fine,\u201d Grunwald said. \u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen she has a very good presence, and talking with her during some conference calls, she understands basketball.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd her team, her players, will realize straight away she knows what she\u2019s talking about. So I think she\u2019ll get their respect and support.\u201d<\/p>\n After studying science and education at Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al, Vall\u00e9e headed west to the University of British Columbia to take some courses and learn to speak English.<\/p>\n She returned to Montreal and attended McGill University, where she earned a master\u2019s physical education degree in coaching and sport psychology.<\/p>\n For three years, she was head coach at Montreal\u2019s Vanier College and, in 2005, landed in Windsor \u2013 where she turned a ragged program, with only four winning seasons in 45 years, into a juggernaut.<\/p>\n When the formation of six-team CEBL was announced earlier this year, John Lashway was appointed president of the Hamilton franchise.<\/p>\n Lashway is no stranger to the game, with 22 years of senior management experience in the NBA. He was one of the first front-office hires when the Toronto Raptors came into existence for the 1995-96 NBA season.<\/p>\n Back in those days, Robin Brudner was also an executive with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, owner of both the Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n Lashway said it was Brudner who first suggested Vall\u00e9e\u2019s name to him when he started casting about for front-office leadership for the Honey Badgers. Brudner is currently the interim CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee.<\/p>\n Lashway, who is well versed in women\u2019s athletics, having acted as sports-information director of women\u2019s sports at the University of Oregon, said he never thought twice about hiring a woman to lead the male Honey Badgers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis might be the only time in my whole life I get to hire a head coach or general manager,\u201d Lashway said. \u201cI was focused on one thing, and that was trying to find a winner, somebody who has won for a long time, somebody who could create a culture of success. That was the only thing I thought about.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd when I started looking at Vall\u00e9e and her past record, it became pretty evident she was that person.\u201d<\/p>\n Belanger said that the role Vall\u00e9e is stepping into won\u2019t be easy for a woman.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously she\u2019s going to be scrutinized, and that\u2019s going to be unfair for her,\u201d she said. \u201cHer errors will become magnified.\u201d<\/p>\n Vall\u00e9e said she is not concerned with that.<\/p>\n \u201cIf anything, I hope it\u2019s going to be great for basketball,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it brings more interest, more fans, more people who want to play the game, then it\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/p>\n