Growing number of Black women in basketball leadership roles provides renewed optimism

This is a column by Shireen Ahmed, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

During Black History Month, the Toronto Raptors organization hosted an event called "Soul 2 Sole."

It was a fireside chat featuring some high ranking and influential Black women in basketball. Among the panellists were WNBA player Natalie Achonwa, Phoenix Mercury assistant GM Monica Wright Rogers, and Jhanelle Peters, a mental health clinician with the Raptors Organization. Dr. Laceé Carmon-Johnson, manager of Basketball Advancement (also with the Raptors) moderated the session.

We are certainly not a country where women are in short supply in basketball communities — see the commissioners and founders of Maritime Women's Basketball League, Hoop Queens, Girls Addicted to Basketball and Muslim Women's Summer Basketball League — as well as prominent women in broadcasting, like Kayla Grey, Kate Beirness, Meghan McPeak, Amy Audibert and Savanna Hamilton.

Then there are people like Kia Nurse who work in broadcasting, play professionally and have a development academy for girls.

Although only 26 per cent of university and college coaches in Canada are women, there is a space where women are thriving; and it's in women's basketball.

My friend, Christa Eniojukan, is head coach of women's basketball at York University. During a conversation we had over the phone, she counted at least 26 universities across Canada that have women head coaches. She told me about a coaching grant from Canadian Women & Sport that empowered women to get training and emboldened them to apply for head coaching positions for which they were very much qualified.

"Last year there were four coaching opportunities and all four were filled by women," Eniojukan told me.

As a coach since 2005, Eniojukan has seen growth in women's basketball in Canada. If at least 26 of the women's basketball programs in Canadian universities are led by women, that's a hopeful statistic. And it expands to basketball in a wider context.

Front office roles and senior leadership positions with the Raptors organization are staffed by talented and driven Black women. This matters not only because the league is over 70 per cent Black players, but because their presence and profile matter to other racialized women.

Tammy Sutton-Brown is an Olympian, a former WNBA All-Star, and now serves under the title of Associate Basketball & Franchise Operations and Director of Player Development for the Raptors 905 — Toronto's G-League affiliate.

Sutton-Brown told me that she feels Toronto, in particular, has the leadership and the interest in promoting women.

I wondered why that is. Why is Toronto a place that fosters Black women in leadership, offering opportunities for women to shine?

"Male allies might be the reason," she said.