From friend to foe: Dheensaw makes her playoff return to the MAC

By Todd Ash-Duah

On a brisk January afternoon in downtown Toronto, the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) was packed with fans as the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold women’s basketball team hosted the Brock Badgers. The matchup was highly anticipated as the Badgers sported a one-game advantage over the Bold in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Central division standings at that time.

“It was super fun,” said Bold head coach Carly Clarke. “We’ve definitely had a bit of a rivalry with Brock.”

But as the ball tipped off, Clarke could see something different about the team draped in red and navy. There was a familiar face on the opposing sideline: Shae Dheensaw, the former lead assistant coach for the Bold from 2021 to 2024, in the thick of her first season as the Badgers’ head coach.

“Our players were excited to see her and play against her,” said Clarke. “For me, it’s just super rewarding to see our coaches or people who have spent time with us go on and lead their own programs or move into those types of positions.”

Led by graduate guard Kaillie Hall’s game-high 21 points, the Bold led wire-to-wire en route to a 72-58 win against their former lead assistant coach’s squad.

The win kicked off an eight-game winning streak for TMU, putting them in position to secure a first-round bye in the playoffs. On Feb. 22, they will kick off their playoff run with an OUA quarterfinal matchup against the Badgers, who defeated the Laurentian Voyageurs in the opening round at home.

“She’s become a great friend of mine despite now being a competitor”

Although they are now on opposite sides of a rivalry, Dheensaw still has a lot of love and respect for her former squad.

“Minus my connection with TMU, the Brock-TMU matchups have been historic over the last six years,” said Dheensaw, who led the Badgers to a playoff berth in her first season as head coach.

“I felt very excited to be back at the [MAC]. I still love and appreciate those players, even though I want to beat them every time we play them,” she said.

Dheensaw’s lifelong basketball journey began as a player at Claremont Secondary High School in Victoria, B.C. where she helped the Claremont Spartans win four straight Island Basketball Championships.

After her high school career ended, Dheensaw took her talents as a center to the United States to play four seasons of National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) basketball at Washington State University from 2011 to 2015. She left a lasting impact on the Cougars’ program.

Under the tutelage of longtime women’s basketball coach June Daugherty, Dheensaw was able to flourish. She finished fifth in program history in total blocks with 98 over the course of her four years.

“I think [Daugherty] taught me what coaches really do, and she did it in her own way,” said Dheensaw. “She taught me that basketball is a vessel for bigger things in life. The things that we talk about—winning championships, our standards within our team and program…all those things that we really harp on our athletes—it’s for a bigger purpose.”

In 2021, the Bold hired Dheensaw to be their lead assistant coach following the departure of Jessica Roque, who left to become the head coach of the Waterloo Warriors.

To Clarke, it was Dheensaw’s attention to detail on the court and coaching experience as a lead assistant and interim head coach with the University of Victoria Vikes from 2017-2021 that made her the perfect fit for the position.

“She had some tremendous playing experience and some assistant coach experience at the NCAA and U Sports level,” said Clarke.

Another element that stood out to Clarke was Dheensaw’s caring personality and her unique ability to connect with players.

“She’s become a great friend of mine despite now being a competitor,” said Clarke. “She’s a fiercely loyal, thoughtful and incredibly hard-working person who cares about the players that she’s leading, not just as basketball players, but as people.”

During her first season as TMU’s lead assistant coach, Dheensaw helped the Bold enjoy their most successful season in program history—they finished the campaign with an undefeated 20-0 record before capturing the OUA Critelli Cup and the U Sports national championship. It was a special and memorable season for all of the members of the team, including Dheensaw.

“It really showed me what a championship group really looks like—the buy-in, the willingness to grow from within, no one being too big or too small for the team,” said Dheensaw. “It takes a lot of acknowledgment and joy to really get to what that group did.”

“I don’t think you ever need to get either of our players excited for a Brock-TMU matchup”

Another chapter in one of the OUA’s best rivalries will be written this weekend when the Badgers and the Bold square off in the OUA playoffs for the second consecutive year and for the fourth time in the last six seasons.

After sweeping the regular season series 2-0, TMU will try to beat Brock for the third time in 2025 and advance to the OUA semi-finals for the first time since the historic 2021-22 season. Doing so will require a test of the program’s coaching pipeline.

Since Clarke became the head coach of the TMU women’s basketball program in 2012, the team has been successful and consistent, notching 12 consecutive OUA playoff berths.

This is a testament to not only the skilled players that have donned a Bold uniform or Clarke’s coaching techniques but her ability to build a high-quality and experienced coaching staff. This includes Roque and Dheensaw, as well as Jama Bin-Edward and Stefanija Mrvaljevic—two former players who now serve as assistant coaches on the Bold’s coaching staff.

“[Mrvaljevic] is awesome in her role and she is going to be a great head coach one day,” said Dheensaw. “[Bin-Edward] is awesome in her role as well. Those are two people who are great examples of buying in; they bought into [Clarke], they bought into their teammates and it allowed them to flourish and become champions.”

With Clarke and her Canadian national team experience at the helm, the Bold are building a pipeline of players and coaches that exemplify what their head coach stands for—growth, leadership and inspiring the next generation to succeed on and off the court.

“It’s certainly something that I’m proud of and part of the environment we try to create,” said Clarke. “I’m a big believer in development, whether that’s developing our athletes and players as student-athletes and people, but also, striving to help develop our staff and providing them with value and a pathway to grow and improve.”

The Bold and Badgers—thus Clarke and Dheensaw—will take to the court on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 4:00 p.m. for their third matchup of the season, this time on a bigger stage: the OUA playoffs. One will be sent home while the other has another chance to cement their legacy.

“I don’t think you ever need to get either of our players excited for a Brock-TMU matchup,” said Dheensaw.