when I consider taking over the position
as head coach at the University of
Windsor people told me it was a
professional suicide the team was in the
bottom of the rankings in Canada it had
only had four winning season in a span
of nearly 50 years I was going to be the
third head coach in three years to try
to take that team over and the media had
portrayed Windsor as the doormat of
women’s basketball in this country even
more than this anybody trying to get the
team would have to recruit students at
that time the universe of Windsor’s
academic reputation was soso it were
very hard to attract student here it is
also during that time that the city on
Route of Windsor was gonna go towards
the most crippling financial crisis of
history the automotive industry almost
went under the unemployment rate in the
city raised up to 12 point 7 percent
people were losing their jobs they were
foreclosure signs everywhere Windsor was
becoming a ghost town without hope but I
needed a job so I applied in many
different position across the country
and interviewed become the head coach of
a few universities and only Windsor
called me back so I said okay but when I
came here I had this dream to transform
the women’s basketball program into
national champion and so I committed
wholeheartedly to this vision and I
build up a 5-year plan of how we were
going to transform this team into
national champion and on March 2011 five
years after the vision was written the
University of women’s basketball team
won its first ever national championship
[Applause]
and the team went on to what to win five
in a row now the first national
championship has a memory that a whole
very dear in my heart because I was on
the floor celebrating and my athletic
director ran towards me he was ecstatic
and he congratulated me but I was very
thankful for him because he had taken a
chance in hiring me I mean I was
completely inexperienced I had never
coached a university in the university
team before and I barely spoke English
properly but he believed in me and so I
wanted to take that chance on the floor
to thank him and when I’m doing this he
goes oh Chantelle there’s something and
everybody told you and maybe I shouldn’t
be say that but well nobody else had
applied
today I want to take you with me on this
exploring this journey of endless
possibilities where dreams can come true
where underdogs can prevail and in
keeping with that on deduct theme I want
to start with a dog story when I was at
McGill University I was doing research
on successful enterprise and coaches and
I had a friend who was in love with
Huskies you know those animals that are
like you know white and gray with blue
eyes and they look like wolf
well she booked herself a plane ticket
from Montreal to Calgary because
apparently that’s where the best Husky
breeder was and when she landed in
Calgary she went on the farm and she was
greeted by six beautiful husky of pure
little husky material she was in husky
heaven and I should assign to decide
which one she was going to take she
heard a noise coming from the corner as
she turned around she saw this black and
beige creature with fluffy ears and
brown eyes huh bling towards her and
quickly the breeder scared it away so
she said was that one of the pups and he
was kind of embarrassed or I don’t know
how it came out this way don’t worry and
he redirected her sight onto the pure
Huskies she realized that that husky
puppy because of a different color had
been left on the side purposely
seemingly a defect in the breeders eyes
and she said I want that one
well she came back to Montreal and we’re
very excited to see that so talked about
wolf of blue eyes and gray fur and white
fur and so when it came out of the
baggage claim on this box and we look at
her we said what happened why did he buy
a German Shepherd she was offended don’t
say this she isn’t a German Shepherd
it’s a husky
just a little bit different but it’s a
real husky she just doesn’t know it yet
it became very apparent to us that the
Husky had been a little disregarded I
mean it was scared of everything it
wouldn’t eat in front of us it would
hide on her table we couldn’t really pet
it without it crouching it was afraid of
squirrels it didn’t look or act and I
think her husky but my friend had a plan
and she said we are going to transform
this into the most confident husky you
have ever seen with time and word of
information as good friends we bought
into the vision of course and we went on
with talking this dog into being more
confident we spent two years
relentlessly doing this two years is a
lot of time dog years well after two
years of working so hard guess what
happened nothing the dog did not change
my friend graduated University and then
found a job in the dog was going to be
abandoned and so Mika became my dog I
couldn’t let her go and I continued to
walk her everything I continued with the
vision to transform her and soon changes
started to happen in her not just in her
personality but in an animal instance
she start to change and bark and like
squirrels in front of my eyes the vision
was coming true here I was doing
research and reading scholarly articles
on coaching success and now people take
pitiful organization and transform them
into the best but it is Mika that gave
me the real and best life lessons in a
real image though left on the side
abandoned and different with time in a
vision
anyone can move from on the dog to a
table dog
well the story of the Windsor Leinster
women’s basketball team is exactly like
Micah’s it was a program that was left
on the side at a university with a
struggling reputation in a city that
didn’t receive the credit it deserved
but big Plaza had done this research and
most importantly because I had to walk
mica every night looking at her ass up
hey why not just apply the mica strategy
on to the University of Windsor women’s
basketball team and here we went as a
staff with our five-year plan in hand in
our vision and when all across the
country recruiting the best athlete and
talking to parents and talking to high
school coaches and working so hard and
saying I know we haven’t won yet but if
you come here by the time you graduate
you’re gonna be a national champion and
we worked so hard with this vision for
two years and guess what happened
nothing the team even got worse I mean
in our second year we did not even make
playoffs people would ignore us I
remember this time I was in Toronto
recruiting this athlete and the father
looks at me and says you are either
delusional crazy or french-canadian but
I kept walking mica and looking at her
it takes time it takes time and so we
kept with the vision and soon one by one
that vision resonated within somebody
and they decided to come to Windsor but
most importantly as a team we develop an
undeniable faith that a turnaround of a
program was imminent and even more than
this as we look to run into our city and
we saw the desolation and some of the
despair that was within a community we
thought hey wait a minute what if we
lift this program from the ashes and
make it into the best in the country
what if we can help maybe change the
profile and reputation of Windsor in the
national media
what if we really get out of this and
win maybe we can inspire people around
us to also believe that hope and change
is possible and that something can come
out of Windsor and so we went into high
school and did assemblies and we hang
out with people in the in retirement
homes and we distributed can go to the
less fortunate and we went and we
invited families to come in to our games
and we shared our vision that plan to
inspire a vision of hope in them it was
really interesting because wow in 2005 I
coached the first game in for about a
dozen Finn by 2010 in the middle of the
financial crisis we were playing in
front of sold-out crowds and we start to
play with so much relentlessness and
passion because we didn’t want to let
our city down we want to make a city
proud and in 2011 a turn of event that
nobody could have predicted happen
Windsor was named to host the national
championship nobody had ever won on
their home court in the history of
women’s basketball but in 2011 right
here at the University of Windsor on
home court the women’s team won its
first national championship of history
[Applause]
a once hopeless city now completely
overjoyed with fans rushing and joining
us crying because they had bought it and
believed in to this vision of
transformation equally rewarding was
what we could then see in the media on a
national media and how we helped change
the reputation of Windsor and how about
here at home what a greater honor then
for a team of 12 women to be handed the
key to their City I have a confession to
make there in this incredible journey of
transformation several times I felt
completely inadequate it let me take you
back in 2009 as the pressure was rising
as the expectation were increasing as
the fans were starting to fill our
stands and as people were literally
latching on to us for hope
I started panic I could not believe what
was happening it was greater and bigger
than what I had imagined and I started
to feel nervous what if we fail and
though I felt that the weight of the
community was on my shoulder and though
I know is all in my head the fear of
failure actually completely took me over
I became absolutely incapable of
coaching properly I didn’t have the life
skill to handle such pressure I didn’t
know how to lead a group of women under
these circumstances I made bad decision
I wasn’t level-headed than anymore and
we lost I felt awful I may or may not
have cried a lot
because we had not fail I had failed I
just had to realize that I had become
the limiting factor to my team’s success
and in the pit of despair
I went to get myself a mentor and I did
some therapy it helped and I started to
learn and I allowed the process to
transform me if I wanted to be part of
this vision I had to be willing to
transform myself I had to learn how to
handle both willing followers and
stubborn leaders I had to learn to
become soft and strong I had to learn to
receive feedback and seek out feedback
and how to receive criticism unless and
until I allowed myself to be transformed
nothing else I could have done or said
would have transformed the women’s
basketball team it was a very difficult
period of my life it was also the most
humbling I don’t know where you are in
your life but I have learned that
starting at the bottom both
professionally and personally is the
best place to start a journey towards
greatness this is where impossible
dreams can come true this is where the
world of endless possibility starts this
is where underdogs can prevail if you
find yourself right in the ashes not
knowing what to do here’s your chance to
create a vision of hope around you if
you find yourself surrounded with rocks
that you think are not worth anything
here’s your chance to transform them
into diamond and if you are in the pit
of despair
if you feel personally you are
inadequate and things aren’t working for
you and you don’t know what to do good
for you
here’s exactly where you have to look
inside and start to allow yourself to
grow and change and then you’ll be able
to change things around you and if ever
you lost your way or along your life
your lack motivation remember this story
or even better remember me Kass story
from humble beginning black and beige
different left on the side to having a
picture predicted right here
like she’s on top of the world and don’t
tell me she looks like a German Shepherd
thank you
[Applause]
as head coach at the University of
Windsor people told me it was a
professional suicide the team was in the
bottom of the rankings in Canada it had
only had four winning season in a span
of nearly 50 years I was going to be the
third head coach in three years to try
to take that team over and the media had
portrayed Windsor as the doormat of
women’s basketball in this country even
more than this anybody trying to get the
team would have to recruit students at
that time the universe of Windsor’s
academic reputation was soso it were
very hard to attract student here it is
also during that time that the city on
Route of Windsor was gonna go towards
the most crippling financial crisis of
history the automotive industry almost
went under the unemployment rate in the
city raised up to 12 point 7 percent
people were losing their jobs they were
foreclosure signs everywhere Windsor was
becoming a ghost town without hope but I
needed a job so I applied in many
different position across the country
and interviewed become the head coach of
a few universities and only Windsor
called me back so I said okay but when I
came here I had this dream to transform
the women’s basketball program into
national champion and so I committed
wholeheartedly to this vision and I
build up a 5-year plan of how we were
going to transform this team into
national champion and on March 2011 five
years after the vision was written the
University of women’s basketball team
won its first ever national championship
[Applause]
and the team went on to what to win five
in a row now the first national
championship has a memory that a whole
very dear in my heart because I was on
the floor celebrating and my athletic
director ran towards me he was ecstatic
and he congratulated me but I was very
thankful for him because he had taken a
chance in hiring me I mean I was
completely inexperienced I had never
coached a university in the university
team before and I barely spoke English
properly but he believed in me and so I
wanted to take that chance on the floor
to thank him and when I’m doing this he
goes oh Chantelle there’s something and
everybody told you and maybe I shouldn’t
be say that but well nobody else had
applied
today I want to take you with me on this
exploring this journey of endless
possibilities where dreams can come true
where underdogs can prevail and in
keeping with that on deduct theme I want
to start with a dog story when I was at
McGill University I was doing research
on successful enterprise and coaches and
I had a friend who was in love with
Huskies you know those animals that are
like you know white and gray with blue
eyes and they look like wolf
well she booked herself a plane ticket
from Montreal to Calgary because
apparently that’s where the best Husky
breeder was and when she landed in
Calgary she went on the farm and she was
greeted by six beautiful husky of pure
little husky material she was in husky
heaven and I should assign to decide
which one she was going to take she
heard a noise coming from the corner as
she turned around she saw this black and
beige creature with fluffy ears and
brown eyes huh bling towards her and
quickly the breeder scared it away so
she said was that one of the pups and he
was kind of embarrassed or I don’t know
how it came out this way don’t worry and
he redirected her sight onto the pure
Huskies she realized that that husky
puppy because of a different color had
been left on the side purposely
seemingly a defect in the breeders eyes
and she said I want that one
well she came back to Montreal and we’re
very excited to see that so talked about
wolf of blue eyes and gray fur and white
fur and so when it came out of the
baggage claim on this box and we look at
her we said what happened why did he buy
a German Shepherd she was offended don’t
say this she isn’t a German Shepherd
it’s a husky
just a little bit different but it’s a
real husky she just doesn’t know it yet
it became very apparent to us that the
Husky had been a little disregarded I
mean it was scared of everything it
wouldn’t eat in front of us it would
hide on her table we couldn’t really pet
it without it crouching it was afraid of
squirrels it didn’t look or act and I
think her husky but my friend had a plan
and she said we are going to transform
this into the most confident husky you
have ever seen with time and word of
information as good friends we bought
into the vision of course and we went on
with talking this dog into being more
confident we spent two years
relentlessly doing this two years is a
lot of time dog years well after two
years of working so hard guess what
happened nothing the dog did not change
my friend graduated University and then
found a job in the dog was going to be
abandoned and so Mika became my dog I
couldn’t let her go and I continued to
walk her everything I continued with the
vision to transform her and soon changes
started to happen in her not just in her
personality but in an animal instance
she start to change and bark and like
squirrels in front of my eyes the vision
was coming true here I was doing
research and reading scholarly articles
on coaching success and now people take
pitiful organization and transform them
into the best but it is Mika that gave
me the real and best life lessons in a
real image though left on the side
abandoned and different with time in a
vision
anyone can move from on the dog to a
table dog
well the story of the Windsor Leinster
women’s basketball team is exactly like
Micah’s it was a program that was left
on the side at a university with a
struggling reputation in a city that
didn’t receive the credit it deserved
but big Plaza had done this research and
most importantly because I had to walk
mica every night looking at her ass up
hey why not just apply the mica strategy
on to the University of Windsor women’s
basketball team and here we went as a
staff with our five-year plan in hand in
our vision and when all across the
country recruiting the best athlete and
talking to parents and talking to high
school coaches and working so hard and
saying I know we haven’t won yet but if
you come here by the time you graduate
you’re gonna be a national champion and
we worked so hard with this vision for
two years and guess what happened
nothing the team even got worse I mean
in our second year we did not even make
playoffs people would ignore us I
remember this time I was in Toronto
recruiting this athlete and the father
looks at me and says you are either
delusional crazy or french-canadian but
I kept walking mica and looking at her
it takes time it takes time and so we
kept with the vision and soon one by one
that vision resonated within somebody
and they decided to come to Windsor but
most importantly as a team we develop an
undeniable faith that a turnaround of a
program was imminent and even more than
this as we look to run into our city and
we saw the desolation and some of the
despair that was within a community we
thought hey wait a minute what if we
lift this program from the ashes and
make it into the best in the country
what if we can help maybe change the
profile and reputation of Windsor in the
national media
what if we really get out of this and
win maybe we can inspire people around
us to also believe that hope and change
is possible and that something can come
out of Windsor and so we went into high
school and did assemblies and we hang
out with people in the in retirement
homes and we distributed can go to the
less fortunate and we went and we
invited families to come in to our games
and we shared our vision that plan to
inspire a vision of hope in them it was
really interesting because wow in 2005 I
coached the first game in for about a
dozen Finn by 2010 in the middle of the
financial crisis we were playing in
front of sold-out crowds and we start to
play with so much relentlessness and
passion because we didn’t want to let
our city down we want to make a city
proud and in 2011 a turn of event that
nobody could have predicted happen
Windsor was named to host the national
championship nobody had ever won on
their home court in the history of
women’s basketball but in 2011 right
here at the University of Windsor on
home court the women’s team won its
first national championship of history
[Applause]
a once hopeless city now completely
overjoyed with fans rushing and joining
us crying because they had bought it and
believed in to this vision of
transformation equally rewarding was
what we could then see in the media on a
national media and how we helped change
the reputation of Windsor and how about
here at home what a greater honor then
for a team of 12 women to be handed the
key to their City I have a confession to
make there in this incredible journey of
transformation several times I felt
completely inadequate it let me take you
back in 2009 as the pressure was rising
as the expectation were increasing as
the fans were starting to fill our
stands and as people were literally
latching on to us for hope
I started panic I could not believe what
was happening it was greater and bigger
than what I had imagined and I started
to feel nervous what if we fail and
though I felt that the weight of the
community was on my shoulder and though
I know is all in my head the fear of
failure actually completely took me over
I became absolutely incapable of
coaching properly I didn’t have the life
skill to handle such pressure I didn’t
know how to lead a group of women under
these circumstances I made bad decision
I wasn’t level-headed than anymore and
we lost I felt awful I may or may not
have cried a lot
because we had not fail I had failed I
just had to realize that I had become
the limiting factor to my team’s success
and in the pit of despair
I went to get myself a mentor and I did
some therapy it helped and I started to
learn and I allowed the process to
transform me if I wanted to be part of
this vision I had to be willing to
transform myself I had to learn how to
handle both willing followers and
stubborn leaders I had to learn to
become soft and strong I had to learn to
receive feedback and seek out feedback
and how to receive criticism unless and
until I allowed myself to be transformed
nothing else I could have done or said
would have transformed the women’s
basketball team it was a very difficult
period of my life it was also the most
humbling I don’t know where you are in
your life but I have learned that
starting at the bottom both
professionally and personally is the
best place to start a journey towards
greatness this is where impossible
dreams can come true this is where the
world of endless possibility starts this
is where underdogs can prevail if you
find yourself right in the ashes not
knowing what to do here’s your chance to
create a vision of hope around you if
you find yourself surrounded with rocks
that you think are not worth anything
here’s your chance to transform them
into diamond and if you are in the pit
of despair
if you feel personally you are
inadequate and things aren’t working for
you and you don’t know what to do good
for you
here’s exactly where you have to look
inside and start to allow yourself to
grow and change and then you’ll be able
to change things around you and if ever
you lost your way or along your life
your lack motivation remember this story
or even better remember me Kass story
from humble beginning black and beige
different left on the side to having a
picture predicted right here
like she’s on top of the world and don’t
tell me she looks like a German Shepherd
thank you
[Applause]
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