NAIT women’s basketball coach wins top award at Canadian collegiate conference

Kiera Lyons, the coach of the NAIT women's basketball team, has earned the title of Canadian Coach of the Year.

An Edmonton-based basketball coach has seen her team through a winning regular season and now has the award to show for it.

Kiera Lyons is in her fourth season as head coach of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) women’s basketball team, the Ooks.

She was recently awarded Canadian Coach of the Year at this year’s Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) national championship, which began last week in Montreal.

“To be recognized by my peers … to even be nominated, meant a great deal to me. There are so many amazing coaches in our conference alone,” she told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday.

In their regular season, the NAIT Ooks tied for first in the Alberta conference with a 17-and-3 record. Lyons is especially proud of the team’s momentum in the last four years as graduates leaving the league threw the Ooks into a “rebuilding phase.”

“It’s taken countless hours and effort by our coaching staff, our trainers and obviously our players. The buy in and the sacrifice that comes every single day from those girls is unbelievable.”

While it’s her name on the award, Lyons says each win is a team accomplishment.

“We win together, we lose together, but everybody is held to the exact same standards. We do everything together on and off the floor, just a culture of love and discipline and hard work,” she said. “Wins are a symptom of that.”

If NAIT win its game Friday night, the team has a shot at the national bronze medal.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny