‍TORONTO (May 19, 2023) – Canada Basketball’s Women’s High Performance Program announced Friday the addition of assistant coaches Murriel Page and Tamara Tatham and video coordinator Nate McKibbon to the Senior Women’s National Team coaching staff.

The trio will join head coach Víctor Lapeña’s staff for the upcoming training camp in Edmonton, Rim-to-Rim exhibition game against Japan in Victoria, and the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2023 in Mexico, July 1-9.

“We’re excited to welcome Murriel, Tamara and Nate ahead of an important summer for our Senior Women’s National Team,” said Denise Dignard, General Manager / Executive Vice-President, Women's High Performance.  “Each brings a unique skill set and coaching experience at various levels, including with Canada Basketball, the NCAA,  and here in Canada with U SPORTS. Adding these coaches to our team will ultimately help us improve in several key areas, both individually for the players and overall as a group.”

Currently an Assistant Women's Basketball Coach at Mississippi State, Page joins the Senior Women’s National Team in an assistant coach role, including specializing in post development.  With over a decade of coaching experience before joining Mississippi State, Page was also an assistant coach at Georgia Tech, Central Michigan and Florida.  After being selected third overall in the 1998 WNBA Draft by Washington – the team’s first draft pick in franchise history – Page played 11 seasons in the WNBA with the Mystics and the Los Angeles Sparks. She was inducted into the Washington Mystics Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural Hall of Fame class. Page also played 12 professional seasons overseas in Spain, Italy and Brazil.

A two-time Olympian, having played for Canada at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Tatham returns to the bench after serving as a Guest Coach last summer at GLOBL JAM. Currently, the head coach of the University of Toronto women’s basketball program, Tatham has been involved with several national team programs, including as an assistant coach at the FIBA U16 Women's Americas Championship 2019.  In 2018, Tatham became the first Canadian woman on the coaching staff of a pro men's league when she joined Raptors 905 as a mentee coach under then head coach Jama Mahlalela.

McKibbon joins the Senior Women’s National Team program in a video coordinator role for the first time this summer after spending several years as an assistant coach with Canada’s U16 / U17 women’s national age-group teams.  McKibbon has been involved with Canada Basketball since 2014 and recently completed his fourth season behind the bench as head coach of the Western University women’s basketball team.  

Lead assistant coach Noelle Quinn is unavailable this summer due to her obligations as head coach of the Seattle Storm.  Assistant coach Carly Clarke will assume a head coaching role for Canada at the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup 2023 and will also miss the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2023. 

The FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2023 will feature the top ten teams in the zone competing in the most prestigious senior women’s basketball tournament in the Americas.  Last week, Canada was drawn into Group B for the competition and will face the host nation Mexico (July 2, time TBD) Puerto Rico (July 3, time TBD), Colombia (July 4, time TBD), and Dominican Republic (July 5, time TBD) in the Group Phase.

With the USA having already secured a spot at next year's Olympic Games in Paris, the best-performing team outside the USA will automatically advance to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament in February 2024.  The following three best teams will play in the regional FIBA Women’s Pre-Olympic Qualifying tournaments in November 2023.

The team is coming off a fourth-place finish at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022, the team's best finish at the World Cup since a third-place finish in 1986.

Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team is ranked fifth in the FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike after the rankings were updated following the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022.