Ken Shields obtained his B.P.E and M.Ph.Ed and from the University of British Columbia and B.A. from the University of Calgary. He served as the Head Men's Basketball Coach at Laurentian University from 1970 to 1976 served as Laurentian's Athletic Director from 1972 to 1976. He became the Head Men's Basketball Coach at the University of Victoria in 1976 and continued through 1989. During his last 11 years as Head Coach the Victoria's Men's Basketball team made the finals of the CIAU Championships 9 times and won seven consecutive National Championships. He served as the Athletic Coordinator at the University of Victoria from 1976 to 1980 and held the position of Manager of Athletics and Recreation Services and Facilities from 1980 to 1990. He directed the establishment of the National Coaching Institute in 1986 and led in the creation of National Training Centres in Rowing, Soccer, and Middle-Distance Running, all in partnerships involving the Federal and Provincial Governments and the University of Victoria. He continues in the role of Master Coach within the National Coaching Institute.

Ken was the Canadian National Men's Basketball Team Coach and Program Director from 1989 to 1994. Previous to this and while at the University of Victoria Ken coached the BC Provincial Men's Team, Canada's Junior National Team and Canada's B Team. He then took the position of President of the Commonwealth Centre for Sport Development and served in this capacity until 1998. He then coached professionally in Japan from 1998 to 2000. Ken was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999.

Since coaching in Japan, Ken has continued as an Advisor to Professional Basketball Teams in Japan. He served as an Assistant Coach to the Japanese Men's National Team in 2001. From 2002 through 2004 he served as an Assistant Coach with the Australian Men's National Team which competed in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. He served as a consultant to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2006 and as the Head Coach with the Georgian National Basketball Team in 2007. He was an Assistant Coach with the National Women's Team from Great Britain January and June 2010. He was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

David DeAveiro was appointed head coach of the McGill University men's basketball team in May, 2010 after a stellar career with the Ottawa Gee-Gees, where he was the team's all-time leader in coaching wins, posting an impressive 210-127 record overall (.623), including a 122-66 mark in regular-season play (.649). The 46-year-old native of Toronto was named three times as OUA East coach of the year (2006, 2007, 2010). He also served as an assistant coach with Canada Basketball on numerous occasions, including the men's junior and senior national teams. Among DeAveiro's stints as an assistant coach was with Jay Triano's staff on the national hoops squad at a 2003 pre-Olympic tourney in China, the 2007 FISU Summer Games in Bangkok where Canada won bronze, the 2008 FIBA Americas under-18 championship in Argentina and the 2009 FIBA world junior championship in New Zealand. DeAveiro has also been invited as a guest coach by Leo Rautins for a national senior team training camp this summer.

Lori Gear McBride enters her first year as head women's basketball coach at the University of Vermont, taking over a program that has won back-to-back conference championships. Gear McBride, a two-time captain who won an NCAA National Championship at the University of North Carolina in 1994, was most recently the head coach at Colby College in Waterville, ME where she led the program a school-record for wins (24), its first-ever national ranking and first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2009-2010. Prior to arriving at Colby in 2005, Gear McBride was a Division I assistant for six years, including two as Assistant Head Coach at Seton Hall University in the BIG EAST Conference. She also spent the 2003-2004 campaign as an assistant at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte where she helped produce a recruiting class ranked in the top 30 nationally. Gear McBride, who was born in Montreal, grew up in Lennoxville, Quebec and played scholastically at Galt High School and Champlain College.

Stephan Barrie is in his 5th season as head basketball coach at the University of Western Ontario Mustangs. His energetic leadership has helped the Mustangs basketball program establish itself as one that is knocking on the door of becoming a national contender. A tremendous motivator, Barrie has set lofty goals for his program. His team has the second best OUA record over the last four years. Barrie, who has been the Mustangs head coach since 2006-2007, has compiled a 68-20 (.772) record in 88 games coaching. Under Barrie, the program earned its first playoff victory since 2002 and its first appearance in the OUA West Final since 2000. The program also returned to the CIS Top Ten for the first time since 2000, and has been ranked in the Top Ten the last two seasons. Before coaching at Western, Barrie served as an assistant coach with the Toronto Varsity Blues men's basketball team. During his tenure with the Blues, working closely with long-time national team assistant coach Mike Katz, Toronto improved from a 6-16 record in 2004 to 16-6 in 2006.