By Canadian Press

Athlete Women Empowered Classic to showcase basketball teams led by Black women

Oct 13, 2023 | 12:52 PM

A unique collegiate basketball tournament is coming to Toronto to encourage more Black, Indigenous and racialized women to get into coaching.

The Athlete Women Empowered Classic, a four-team U Sports women’s basketball tournament, will be held at York University from Oct. 20 to 22. York, Concordia, Trinity Western, and the University of Toronto are all competing in the event that will also have workshops, panel discussions and networking sessions with coaches, athletes, and industry leaders.

Those four teams are participating because their coaches are the only Black women currently leading women’s basketball teams in U Sports. U of T’s Tamara Tatham, Concordia’s Tenicha Gittens, Trinity Western’s Cheryl Jean-Paul and York’s Christa Eniojukan designed the pre-season tournament during the heaviest periods of the COVID-19 pandemic to create a pathway for BIPOC women to take on leadership roles in sports.

“We each have different journeys of how we came into coaching, we each have different experiences within the university context, and all of us are involved in a national team program of some kind,” said Jean-Paul. “So it’s just really breaking down barriers and helping, especially young Black female athletes, recognize that there are opportunities for them after their playing career.”

Jean-Paul said that she wishes an event like this existed when she was first breaking into the coaching ranks.

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“You can’t be what you can’t see,” she said in a recent phone interview with The Canadian Press. “I think I’m the oldest of the four of us (…) and when I was coaching at the high school level or in a club or I was coaching at the CEGEP level I wasn’t sure if someone like me could make that the university level.

“So I think I’ve taken that responsibility, I’ve taken that obligation very seriously, in terms of not just helping an athlete see what can happen but also younger female Black coaches by saying that this is something that you really want to do than go and pursue it.”

Eniojukan said she wants the event to inspire young people regardless of gender or their preferred sport.

“My hopes are that young women and young girls and young boys are exposed to women in sport and the great things that they offer,” said Eniojukan. “Obviously, we’re going to use basketball as a platform to do it, because that’s our sport, right? But really this is just giving them exposure to what is happening in women’s sport generally.”

There will be five games held at York University’s main campus, with a rare opportunity for fans to see women’s collegiate basketball teams from Canada competing against each other outside the U Sports national championship.

There will also be a dinner and awards presentation on the first night of the event, which Eniojukan said she’s particularly looking forward to.

“It’s an opportunity to network and take down that guard of being an opponent and a competitor, and just network with the other teams,” she said. “Two of my former athletes, Hanna Hall and Dakota Whyte, they’re on the panel. I am huge supporter of them.

“They are phenomenal women and have created amazing path through sport for themselves and continue to work in sport industries. It’ll be great for young women to hear their stories.”

Tickets for all three days of the event are available for free on the Athlete Empowered Women Classic’s website.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2023.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press