Duffie named to U16 National Team coaching staff

WOLFVILLE, N.S. - Canada Basketball announced the names of 18 athletes who have been invited to the U16 men's national team training camp taking place at the University of Toronto Mississauga this week. The announcement also included Acadia men's basketball team head coach Kevin Duffie will join the team's coaching staff led by head coach Kirby Schepp.

A native of Grand Falls, N.B., Duffie will head into his sixth season as the head coach of the Axemen. Prior to his appointment as head coach, Kevin has spent six seasons as an assistant coach at Acadia under former head coach Stephen Baur.

Duffie has spent many summers with the Nova Scotia provincial program, recently winning a Gold Medal with Basketball Nova Scotia at the 2016 17u National Championship and winning a Silver Medal with Nova Scotia during the summer of 2011. He has represented Nova Scotia as a coach in four National Championships and in one Canada Games.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to be apart of the National program and thankful to Acadia for supporting its coaches in these endeavors. I am also looking forward to working with and learning from high-level coaches like coach Kirby Schepp, coach Patrick Tatham, and coach Jason Dawkins. We have an ever-growing talent pool of Canadian basketball players and it is exciting to be on the ground floor watching it develop," said Duffie.

Schepp along with assistants Duffie, Tatham and Dawkins will prepare the selected team from May 21 to May 30 for the FIBA U16 Americas Championship 2019 in Belém, Brazil from June 3-9. The top-four teams will qualify for the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2020. Canada is in Group B along with hosts Brazil, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.

The announcement comes at the same time as Acadia men's basketball assistant coach Luc Stevenson, who has been with the Axemen for three seasons, was named as an assistant coach with U17 Basketball Nova Scotia Boys Provincial team.

"I am honoured to represent the Acadia men's basketball team in which I have been coaching for the past 3 years as an assistant coach as well as Acadia University where I have recently completed my Bachelor of Education degree. This gives me a great opportunity to represent Acadia University on a Provincial and National level," said Stevenson.

The 2019 U17 National Championships will be held in Fredericton, N.B. from August 5-10th.