Tufts working with Saskatchewan’s basketball program

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This article was published 08/07/2019 (2565 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kira Tufts felt both at home and a bit out of place on Sunday.

The former Brandonite was back in the Healthy Living Centre, a place she spent a lot of time at during the 2013-14 school year as a member of the Brandon University Bobcats women’s basketball team, but she was on an unfamiliar bench. Instead of being on Manitoba’s home-team bench during the Prairie Cup — a tournament with games between Manitoba’s and Saskatchewan’s 15-and-under, 16U and 17U women’s teams — she was on Saskatchewan’s, serving as an assistant coach for the province’s 15U squad.

“It’s different being on the other side of the bench now, but it’s cool,” Tufts said following Saskatchewan’s 58-51 loss to Manitoba in its first of two meetings on the day. “It’s neat to come home and see everyone and being in a familiar environment but with some new people. It’s kind of fun.”

Basketball has been one of Tufts’ passions for a long time.

She was invited to the Manitoba’s graduating all-star game during her Grade 12 year after helping the Neelin Spartans reach the provincial AAA varsity girls’ consolation final. She went to Medicine Hat College to play for two years in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference after graduating before returning to Brandon and joining the Bobcats for the 2014-15 U Sports season. Tufts played in 14 games with BU.

As she got older, the five-foot-seven guard’s desire to be in the gym every day as a player started to wane. So she decided to retire and move to Regina to finish her degree in kinesiology.

Although she was done playing, she wouldn’t move on from the game. Tufts started coaching back when she was in high school — her first experience with a Grade 7 and 8 team at École Harrison. She also helped with Mini Spartans camps at Neelin and coached with the Junior Bobcats program when she was playing for BU.

Tufts enjoyed coaching and got involved in it shortly after moving to Regina, starting with a Regina Community Basketball Association team made up of players in Grades 7 and 8.

“It’s just fun being with the girls and teaching them what I’ve learned about the game,” she said. “Just giving back and still being involved in the sport. I just love that part of it.”

Tufts eventually moved up to coach the senior girls’ team at Thom Collegiate (a high school) before taking a step back to work with Bree Burgess at the Basketball Saskatchewan’s Centre of Performance program.

Burgess was named the head coach of the provincial U15 team and asked Tufts, who is now 25 and works as a physiotherapist at Courtside Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, to join her staff as an assistant this summer.

Tufts jumped at the opportunity.

“It was always kind of a goal to work my way up through coaching because I enjoy it, to get as much experience as I could. This is obviously a great experience for me,” she said. “I don’t know if I necessarily saw it coming like this, but I’m glad I got the experience and this opportunity.”

This job brings a new challenge for her. Like the other assistant coach on the team, Tufts has only ever been a guard, but one of them had to focus on the forwards, so the Brandonite stepped up. She focuses on spacing, positioning, footwork and other aspects of the game with the players.

The next month is going to be busy. Team Saskatchewan hit the road to Chicago for the Nike tournament following their second game on Sunday, and they will continue to build up for 15U nationals, which runs from Aug. 4 to 11 in Victoria.

That doesn’t bother Tufts. She is enjoying her time with the provincial team and in Regina, a community with a lot of support for women’s basketball. She is looking to use this experience to continue to develop as a coach, but also enjoy the summer.

“I’m hoping to learn even more about the game and what it takes to coach at a higher level,” she said. “This will be the highest level I will have coached at, so hopefully it’s just a good learning experience and I can take everything I’ve learned going forward.”

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