EDMONTON (Canada) - The Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) announced Wednesday the coaching staff of the 2021 CEBL champion Edmonton Stingers who will represent Canada in the upcoming Basketball Champions League of Americas (BCLA). The BCLA brings together 12 teams representing seven countries from the Americas, competing over the course of four months to win a berth in the 2023 FIBA International Cup, one of professional basketball's most prestigious international competitions. The BCLA begins with Edmonton traveling to Nicaragua to begin pool play December 13.

Jermaine Small, a two-time and current CEBL Coach of the Year with the Edmonton Stingers, will serve as General Manager and Head Coach of the Stingers BCLA team. He will be joined by assistant coaches Charles Dube-Brais and Victor Raso. Roy Rana has been named as a special assistant to Small.

As the winningest coach in CEBL history with a 32-4 record in two-and-a-half seasons guiding the Edmonton Stingers, Small led Edmonton to back-to-back CEBL Championships in 2020 and 2021. Aside from his CEBL duties, Small is also head coach of the University of Lethbridge men's basketball program of the Canada West division of U SPORTS.

"It is a tremendous honour to represent the CEBL and Edmonton Stingers in this prestigious international event. I'm really excited for the opportunity to showcase our talent as the newcomers in this (BCLA) competition." Jermaine Small, Head Coach and General Manager.

Dubé-Brais is head coach of the Ottawa BlackJacks, where he led the second-year CEBL franchise to a semifinal appearance at CEBL Championship Weekend. As part of his extensive coaching resume, Dubé-Brais served as assistant coach with Raptors 905 of the NBA G League in 2018-19 and served as guest coach in the NBA Summer League with the San Antonio Spurs from 2015-2017.

Raso has been the general manager and head coach of the Niagara River Lions, since the CEBL's inaugural season in 2019 when he led the team to a league-best record of 15-5. Raso led Niagara to a 10-4 regular season and into the championship game in 2021. Raso won back-to-back national university titles in 2013 and 2014 as captain of Carleton University before taking on the role of assistant coach for with the Ravens, where he earned his third championship title alongside the winningest head coach in U SPORTS men's basketball history, Dave Smart.

Serving as a special assistant and advisor to the Stingers coaching staff will be Small's high school coach, Roy Rana, who is currently an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings of the NBA. Rana served as head coach Ryerson University for nearly 10 years where he led the Rams to five consecutive U SPORTS Final 8 tournament appearances and their first-ever U SPORTS silver medal in 2017. That same year Rana also led Canada to a historic first-ever World Championship in FIBA competition, when he led the 2017 U19 men's national team to a gold medal in the FIBA Under-19 World Championship.

Small and Rana also have an extensive history of coaching together. After finishing his playing career at Houghton College, in upstate New York, Small became a volunteer coach for two years under Rana at Eastern Commerce Institute in Toronto before joining his coaching staff at Ryerson University in 2012 where he spent three seasons.

"With our first-ever entry into the BCLA's I am pleased to appoint three of our league's top coaches to lead our inaugural BCLA participation as we represent Canada on the global stage. Back-to-back league champion and two-time CEBL Coach of the Year Jermaine Small is joined another Coach of the Year winner in Vic Raso, along with the international experience of Charles Dubé-Brais gives us an excellent staff of coaches that will have the Stingers prepared to compete at the highest level against some of the best teams in the world." Mike Morreale, Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, CEBL.

The CEBL also announced the management team of the Stingers for the BCLA competition. Joe Raso, senior director of basketball operations for the CEBL, will serve in that capacity for the BCLA's. Antwi Atuahene has been named assistant general manager, and Andreas Morse as manager of basketball operations.

FIBA