Canadian women's coach Clarke on GLOBL JAM, representation, and developing young athletes

Fresh off a historic undefeated season and U SPORTS national championship with the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) women’s program, Carly Clarke is back in her hometown as the head coach of the Canadian women’s under-23 GLOBL JAM team. 

Clarke, who has been surrounded by women’s basketball since she was in the third grade and who currently serves as an assistant coach for the senior women’s national team, will have the opportunity to coach an absolutely stacked roster of Canadians including senior national team members Shaina Pellington and Aaliyah Edwards as well as up-and-comers like Shy Day-Wilson and Latasha Lattimore. 

As someone who has been a head coach with Canada Basketball since 2011, Clarke has witnessed the rise of women’s basketball in this country first hand, and she looks at GLOBL JAM as an opportunity to showcase that growth on home soil for the first time. Sportsnet spoke to Clarke about her basketball upbringing, the importance of representation in women’s sports, how the national program is developing female athletes, and what characterizes Canadian hoops.

Sportsnet: Growing up in Halifax, how did you get into the game of basketball?

Carly Clarke: Just the neighborhood that I grew up in, all my friends played so I started playing in grade three and just loved it. I was lucky to have had some really good coaches when I was young that I would say positively impacted me. My high school coach and I are good friends to this day, and he had a real strong impact on my basketball development. And there were some female coaches at the universities in Nova Scotia at that time that I was able to be around a lot. I think seeing females in that position — also including Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee — was helpful.

How do you make that transition from playing to coaching? And how did you come to be the head coach of TMU and an assistant coach on the senior women’s national team? 

I played for five years at Bishop's University in Quebec and then graduated. I wasn't sure what I was going to do next and the head coach at Dalhousie University, Carolyn Savoy, who had coached me with Team Canada when I was a player, called and asked if I wanted to come be an assistant coach with her. I was thinking about doing a masters degree anyways so I decided to do my MBA and start coaching with her. I spent two years there. 

At the same time, I started working in the Canada Basketball Center for Performance Programs, essentially as a volunteer. I did that and I was doing provincial teams with Nova Scotia as well. And then in 2009, there was a program called the National Elite Development Academy that was run by Canada Basketball out of Hamilton. They hired me to be an apprentice coach there for a year, where I helped train some of the best high school players from across the country including national team prospects such as Natalie Achonwa, Michelle and Katherine Plouffe, and Kayla Alexander. After that, at 26 years old, I got hired to be a head coach at University of Prince Edward Island. During my second year there in 2011 I got the opportunity to head coach Canada’s U-16 team. And then I just kind of worked my way up the national team pathway and, after three years at UPEI, I was hired here at TMU, where I've been for 10 years. In the offseasons I've always done national team stuff, starting at U-16 and U-17, then I moved to U-18 and U-19 for a cycle, and now I’m an assistant on the senior team. 

What do you like most about coaching?

My real passion is in helping a team achieve a goal and in helping people and players grow in order to do that. I definitely feel the most pride or the most satisfaction when I see our athletes achieve something that they have high hopes for.

And how would you define your coaching style?

I think player or athlete-centered. I hope that the athletes feel supported but also challenged and inspired. I try to pull on threads that will intrinsically motivate them. Rather than a fear-based approach where I would yell or scream, it’s more just about trying to encourage the why, understand the why, and do that while building a team of great people.

And then with this specific group you have at GLOBL JAM, how would you characterize this team?

In general at the international level, the Canadian reputation is that we play with a lot of grit; That we're really defensive minded and pretty physically tough that way. I think there's a level of athleticism that's showing across our game now, too. I think this specific group has a lot of competitors. I think there's a competitive edge to this group that makes them pretty special. And there's some passion and drive around that as well.

What does it mean for you to coach this team in Canada in the inaugural GLOBL JAM tournament, where most of these women will be playing on home soil for the first time in years? 

It means a lot. Like I said, I've been working with the national teams since 2011. I've had the opportunity to head coach for seven or eight years, but always abroad in places like Mexico, Chile, Amsterdam, Italy, and Japan. I’ve been all around the world but never had the opportunity to head coach in Canada. So to do that, representing Canada in the building in which I work full time at TMU, that really means a lot. 

And then to be able to work with a bunch of these players who I've traveled around the world with and to share the experience with all of them in front of friends and family, it’s going to be special. And hopefully we can develop a larger fan base across the nation as we finally get to showcase what we're capable of at home. 

You spoke about having female coaches who you could see yourself in growing up. What do you think a tournament like this could mean for young Canadian girls who can come to games and actually watch these athletes play in person for probably the first time? 

I think it's massive. I know over the last few years, there's been so many stories about the Raptors and the Vince Carter effect and all that. And I think that's impacted women's basketball too. But when women can see women doing something, I think that has a whole other impact. And yes the WNBA is growing and upcoming, but it's only on TV here and there, especially here in Canada. So for fans to get the opportunity to see some future WNBA players firsthand and be able to aspire and maybe get their autograph, I think those memories will last so much longer in-person than from watching on TV.

I know that this is somewhat of a development team for the senior team and that the hope is that some of these young women will eventually play for the senior team, say at the 2028 Olympics. So how do you balance developing the talent with the desire to win this tournament? 

Something we talk about all the time is performance on demand, and that's a development thing. In these tournaments, in FIBA tournaments, Olympic tournaments, you've got seven games in 10 days, or in this case, five games in six days, and you've got to be able to reach peak performance and come together. And I think there's a development aspect to that of learning how to move through these tournaments, which are so different from a college season or a pro season where you have six or eight months, right? 

And then it’s also about building roles, building systems that align from our age group teams into our senior team. So the athletes get more touch points in building those roles and experiences to take on different opportunities. I think that all contributes to development and working with them to share, educate and build habits that allow you to be a professional and a longtime player. 

We are witnessing a rise of Canadian basketball talent, with 20 Canadian women playing in March Madness last season. How important are these national team experiences to the development of these Canadian athletes? 

I think our development system certainly from a national team perspective has continued to grow and we have created a pathway for these high performance women for sure. I think the big thing is the pathway that's been created, so now the best athletes start playing at U-14, U-15 with their provincial teams, and then they can play U-16, U-17 and U-18, U-19 with the national teams. And they’re just getting all these high level opportunities to play and compete and understand and build training habits and understanding of the skill set that you need to play at a high level. 

Plus, with the increased exposure that women's basketball is getting and that our national team is getting, I think that is inspiring Canadian players to want to achieve more and work harder.