December 18, 2014 (Yellowknife, NT) – NWT Basketball is pleased to announce Aaron Wells and Melissa Bard as the Head Coaches for the male and female basketball teams that will compete at the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Aaron Wells will take the lead on coaching the male basketball team in this competition. Aaron brings a wealth of coaching knowledge and playing experience in the North. Wells competed as a player in National/International competitions during high school at the National Championships and Arctic Winter Games respectively. Since receiving a Bachelors Degree in 2011 from Mount Royal University, he has returned to the North and been the assistant coach for the NWT Junior Men’s team, 2013 Canada Summer Games and the U17 National Championships. Wells is currently the head coach of the NWT Junior Men’s Basketball Team that is run out of Yellowknife, NT.

Melissa Bard has been selected as the head coach for the Women’s team that will compete in 2017. Melissa has over 9 years of experience coaching basketball teams in Alberta and most recently the NWT. Bard played on the University of Alberta’s Women’s Basketball team throughout her time at University where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Education in 2005. Melissa was the head coach of the Arctic Winter Games team in 2010 and 2014, in which the girl’s team won a silver medal in the 2014 games. She is the co-founder of the GO Ball program that was founded in 2011 and has girls from K- 12 playing the game of basketball. Melissa has been the head coach of the Yellowknife High Performance Girls Program from 2008- 2011 and 2013 to present.

We are looking forward to working with these coaches over the next two and a half years, as we develop our athletes for this national competition.

For more information you can contact:

Basketball NWT
www.bnwt.ca
info@bnwt.ca