Honey Badgers Name Broxsie as new Head Coach

The Brampton Honey Badgers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) announced Monday that Antoine Broxsie has been named the third head coach in team history. He replaces 2022 CEBL Coach of the Year Ryan Schmidt, who is unable to return for a fourth season with the Honey Badgers due to his obligations to the London Lions of the British Basketball League.

Currently Player Development coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are playing the New York Knicks in the NBA playoffs, Broxsie brings a lengthy resume to Brampton that includes a 15-year playing career in pro leagues around the world, and assistant coaching stints with the Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets of the NBA, and with the Memphis Hustle and Rio Grande Vipers of the NBA G League. He also spent two years working alongside current Honey Badgers General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Jermaine Anderson with the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association.

“Player Development and helping our players reach their next level has always been priority number one for the Honey Badgers organization, and Antoine Broxsie brings an abundance of expertise and experience in that capacity from the NBA, NBA G League and internationally,” said Honey Badgers team president John Lashway. “Antoine’s extensive experience as a professional player at this level of basketball will benefit our players and entire organization as we seek to repeat as champions of the CEBL. We have had a remarkable 50 players in four seasons sign contracts to play internationally following a summer with us, and I’m optimistic Antoine will continue to keep this franchise the best in the CEBL at progressing players up the ladder.”

A native of Tampa, Florida, Broxsie graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2002 following two seasons at Minnesota. His professional playing career took him to eight countries, including Saudi Arabia, China, Cyprus, Japan, Venezuela, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Iran. He won several league championships and numerous individual honours that included multiple Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards. He holds citizenship in the United States and Dominican Republic, is fluent in Spanish and English, as well as conversational in Chinese and Japanese.

Broxsie coached in China, Thailand and Japan before returning to the United States as an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies NBA Summer League team in 2018. He spent the 2018-19 season as assistant coach with the Memphis Hustle and working in player development with the Memphis Grizzlies. He moved onto the Houston Rockets and their G League affiliate Rio Grande in the same capacities the following year. Broxsie joined the staff of head coach J.B. Bickerstaff when Bickerstaff was appointed to his current position leading the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The 6-foot-11 43-year-old has trained and developed numerous NBA players. The job in Brampton will be his first as a professional head coach. “I am looking forward to serving as head coach of the Brampton Honey Badgers and contributing to their longstanding culture of being the place where premier players want to come to get better and compete for a championship,” said Broxsie. “I would like to thank John Lashway and Jermaine Anderson for entrusting me with this opportunity. It’s exciting to be leading a team that will be working to defend its championship in a highly competitive high level pro league. Our team will compete hard and our fans in Brampton will enjoy watching some of the best pro basketball outside of the NBA.”

Preceding Broxsie as head coach with the Honey Badgers was Chantal Vallée, who served as both head coach and general manager during the inaugural season of 2019 and guided the team into the championship game, and Schmidt, who led the team to the championship semifinals in 2020 and to the title last season. Schmidt is presently head coach of one of the emerging teams in European professional basketball.

The Honey Badgers, who won the 2022 CEBL Championship as the Hamilton Honey Badgers before the impending closure of their arena for a two-year renovation project led them to permanently relocate to Brampton last December, open training camp for the league’s fifth season May 15. The club has already announced the return of key members from last year’s title team that include Jeremiah Tilmon Jr., Koby McEwen, Zane Waterman, Prince Oduro, and Kyle Johnson.

Brampton opens the regular season May 24 at Ottawa before hosting their home-opener at the CAA Centre on May 26 versus Scarborough, the team they knocked off in the 2022 league championship game.

A league created by Canadians for Canadians with a mission to develop Canadian players, coaches, sports executives, and referees, the CEBL boasts the highest percentage of Canadian players of any pro league in the country with 71 percent of its 2022 rosters being Canadian. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international pro leagues, the Canadian National team program, and top NCAA programs as well as U SPORTS. Nine players have moved from the CEBL into the NBA following a CEBL season, and 28 CEBL players attended NBA G League training camps last October. The 2023 CEBL season tips off May 24 with the Brampton Honey Badgers visiting the Ottawa BlackJacks in a game that will be nationally televised on TSN.

More information about the CEBL is available at CEBL.ca and @cebleague on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.