TORONTO — Canada Basketball has named Natasha Bussoli and Kulbir Sidhu as the two recipients of the 2026 Mike MacKay Stewardship Award, recognizing a pair of coaches whose work has reshaped basketball opportunities in their communities.

The award, formerly known as the Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching Award, was reimagined this year to recognize individuals across the basketball ecosystem — coaches, officials, volunteers and club administrators — who are committed to developing future leaders and growing the game through an athlete- and care-centred approach.

It honours two recipients annually, with one recipient being a female leader working with female athletes. Bussoli and Sidhu were shortlisted amongst a field of five finalists that also included Gavin Greenley, Kelli Sinnock and Chris West.

Each recipient will receive a $2,500 bursary, and Canada Basketball will work with them to deliver a stewardship clinic in their home province, extending the impact of their work into their local basketball community.

The Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching Award is a tribute to James and Ruth MacKay, parents of Mike MacKay. Their exemplary parenting and the influence of all the transformational coaches who’ve worked with Mike inspired this award.

Natasha Bussoli

Bussoli came to competitive basketball comparatively late, unknowing of rep basketball’s existence until Grade 11 — but she began coaching almost immediately after, taking a house-league job as a teenager that she calls one of the best things that ever happened to her.

"Playing basketball gave me amazing opportunities for growth and lifelong relationships, and coaching allows me to pay that forward every day," Bussoli said. "I love watching athletes connect, find their voice, take on challenges, and realize they are capable of more than they thought."

She remembers how daunting that first coaching job felt. "You're speaking in front of parents and athletes, you're practice planning, and everything is very new," she said. "If you ask me to do that now, 20 years later, I'm like, no problem. But doing it for the first time, trying to get everybody on the same page — I think that's the greatest thing ever. That's how I kind of started."

Over the past two decades, Bussoli has coached at nearly every level of the sport: 12 years with York South Silver Knights Basketball Club, running house league, camps, rep teams and small-group training for girls; stints with IEM Basketball, George Brown College, Bill Crothers Secondary School and King Heights Academy. 

She also spent a season as a varsity athlete herself, playing field hockey at York University despite never having played before, an experience she says reshaped how she coaches.

"Being able to see things in a different light was incredible for my coaching journey," she said. "Learning how to bring teams together, how to get buy-in, and that everybody needs to feel like they contribute wherever they are on the team — that was one of the best experiences I've had, going from coach back to athlete and then bringing those lessons back to my coaching."

She points to mentors at nearly every stop as the throughline of that journey. 

At Silver Knights, it was Joe Spineto, the club's director of rep who has since passed away, and Sam Bongiorno, director of camps and house league. "They provided time and mentorship, and a lot of valuable information that absolutely helped me grow," she said. "That's the reason I was there for so long."

At George Brown, it was head coach Omari Wiltshire. "One of the greatest coaches and human beings I've ever met," she said. "He gave me every opportunity possible. I got to head coach a preseason game, and an in-season game. I'm very thankful for what he's given me, but even more thankful for what he's given the basketball community." And at Bill Crothers, it was Jodi Gram, who started the school's prep program. "She mentored me, gave me her time, and was real with me in a very supportive way," Bussoli said. "She's still someone I lean on to this day." She also credits Tom Liston and Courtney Charles as important mentors in her continued growth as a coach and leader. 

What those mentors had in common, she said, was that none of them let her coast. "I look for people who are going to mentor me and help make me better, but also keep me accountable," Bussoli said. "There are way too many yes people that exist. I want to go where people are going to challenge me, because I can pass that on now. I'm going to expedite my own process of learning and growing."

Much of that growth, she says, has come from work no one sees.

"I have my hands in a little bit of everything — the admin, the phone calls, the practice planning, the scheduling. There are lots of visionaries who talk about doing things, but the reality is, it takes time. This is not something new, this is something I've been consistently doing since I was 16, so for 20 years now. I think that's the important piece: that I am consistent, and I am putting in the work, so often."

Today, that work extends well beyond the teams she coaches directly. Bussoli is the Co-Founder of Lead Thru Sport, Founder and Director of Raise Her Game, and Girls Commissioner of the Coalition Basketball League, roles through which she creates opportunities for girls to compete, develop, lead, and find their place in the game. 

Bussoli, who is moving into a new role supporting girls' teams at North Toronto Basketball, described stewardship as an obligation to the whole basketball ecosystem, not just the athletes directly in front of her. 

"It's a responsibility to serve the game, to grow it, and to leave it better than how you found it — and to keep asking, what does the game need?" she said. "There's the coaches, the refs, the parents, the administrators, the programs — everybody is connected in that. Understanding the landscape and the ecosystem of basketball is how you're able to serve it properly."

Her advice for the next generation of coaches was immediate. 

"Know your values, a thousand percent," she said. "Your values are going to drive all of your decisions. You often see people waver when different opportunities come their way. But when you stick to your values, you represent something, and you're consistent with something. 

“You'll always sleep well at night, and you'll always make the right decision, even if it's a difficult one."

Kulbir Sidhu

Sidhu grew up in Malton, a small, tight-knit community that sits between Mississauga, Brampton and Toronto Pearson International Airport — a neighbourhood, he notes, that has quietly produced an outsized share of Canadian basketball talent.

He picked up the game trailing his older brother to practices, and it never let go.

"Basketball has always been more than just a game to me, it's been the heartbeat of my journey," said Sidhu. "It has given me opportunities, mentors, lifelong friendships, and invaluable life lessons that have shaped who I am. 

“At some point I realized that I wanted to become that mentor for someone else, the way it had been done for me."

That realization turned into Malton Sting. 

Sidhu, a lawyer who studied law in the U.K. at The University of Buckingham, returned to Malton in 2019 to find that the basketball program that once existed in his hometown was gone, despite the talent still coming out of it. Along with a co-founder, Shiv Singh, he built a new one from scratch, and the club is now heading into its eighth year, having weathered a launch that spilled into the pandemic and, the day before its first tryout, a shooting a block from the gym.

"We had 60 or 70 kids sign-up. I think 18 came out," Sidhu said. "That 18 [became] the inaugural members of the team. It's just a very resilient neighbourhood. There are so many pitfalls, and kids walking on a razor's edge, and we said, ‘look, we have to have the courage to do this’."

Malton Sting has since raised money and food for the local food bank and a scholarship fund with the Malton Black Development Association, built a coaching apprenticeship program that brings former players back to mentor the next group, and this past season, fielded the township's first-ever girls rep basketball team, a program Sidhu took over midseason and helped climb from 43rd to a bronze-medal, in a township with 50 years of basketball history and no prior girls rep team.

"When I started Malton Sting, it wasn't for trophies and wins and personal glory," he said. "It was seeing a kid dribbling a ball down the street or in a gym and seeing myself, and asking, what did I need at that age? Did I just need a shoulder, or an ear, or a high five? Again, it came back to the community, and what this beautiful game can teach us about life, accountability, discipline, teamwork, and confidence."

Sidhu points to two teachers who coached him in middle and high school — Bob Skinner (retired), who taught him math and science and coached him at Morningstar Middle School, and Jonathan Graham (retired), former head coach of Westwood Secondary School which is now Lincoln Alexander Secondary School — as the two people who most shaped how he leads.

"Mr. Skinner appreciated my never-quit attitude and nurtured that, and he really set the foundation of why basketball is like life," Sidhu said. "And Jonathan Graham kept pushing me, whether it was in the weight room or on the court. When I told him what I'd started, the first thing he said was, keep doing it, that the community needs it — but remember, it's a thankless position. Nobody's going to pat you on the back. It's the stories you don't hear that should keep you going. I always tell him, ‘if it wasn't for you, I don't know if I'd be doing what I'm doing right now’."

He credits his parents in the same breath. "They worked blue-collar jobs, living the Canadian dream every day in front of my eyes," he said. "The struggles they went through as new immigrants, leaving home and raising two children in a brand-new country — seeing that example every day instilled that never-quit, never-say-die attitude in me."

Asked what stewardship means to him, Sidhu described it as a posture of humility as much as a set of actions. "It's constantly learning and knowing that you don't have all the answers," he said. "Technically, stewardship means recognizing that we don't own the game, that we're trying to take care of it and nurture it so it's better for the next generation. It's about serving the players, supporting coaches, and creating opportunities — leaving the game stronger than we found it. We're always in this gimme-gimme type of society with basketball, like, this player is mine.”

“But if we can treat basketball like it's for everybody, then the people I've inspired will lead the game to a better place than where we found it."

His advice to a young coach beginning that same journey: "Be willing to keep working even when nobody sees it. Keep learning. Be humble in your pursuit. And remember that every decision should put the athlete first. Success isn't measured by championship banners, it's how we build relationships, trust, and influence the next generation. 

“If you focus on service, the impact is going to last far longer than any championship."

Recognizing service that goes unseen

Both recipients said they were caught off guard by the honour, neither knew they had been nominated until friends, players and colleagues came forward with letters of support on their behalf.

"I was in shock that I was even nominated," Sidhu said. "To be recognized by Canada Basketball truly left me speechless. It goes to show that Canada Basketball really values growing the game just like we do."

"I've been doing this for 20 years, and I'm very much a behind-the-scenes type of person," Bussoli said. "I do feel like none of this is about me, I'm here to serve, that's exactly what I'm doing. But with that being said, it is nice to have recognition sometimes."

Canada Basketball will distribute the award as part of its ongoing work to build safe, equitable and inclusive basketball programming across the country, removing barriers to coaching and officiating development, leadership pathways, and access for equity-deserving youth.

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