Sea Bears Ready for Exciting yet Emotional Season Ahead

As Year 7 of CEBL action gets underway, so does the race to Championship Weekend 2025.

Not only a three-day celebration of basketball north of the border, but also a battleground to determine which team walks away with a title once the dust settles.

This year, the festivities will be taking place in Winnipeg.

Heading into just their third season as part of the CEBL — already known for raucous crowds and uber-committed fans — the Sea Bears were awarded the honour of hosting CW25 for the first time in franchise history.

And make no mistake, the organization wants to make a statement when they welcome the competition to their home in August.

“It’s going to be something special,” said head coach and general manager Mike Taylor. “I think the way it’s going to be here in Winnipeg will raise the level for the CEBL. All eyes will be on the City of Winnipeg, and I think Winnipeg will help elevate the expectations and standards of what Championship Weekend is going to be.”

With so much enthusiasm even before the team’s season opener on Friday, excitement feels like the obvious emotion to associate with the Sea Bears’ upcoming campaign. And while that’s true, there will be one more, equally prevalent, feeling throughout the summer … grief.

Amid the 2024 off-season, the franchise and local community were blindsided by the sudden loss of Chad Posthumus. The Sea Bears player and Winnipeg native suffered a brain aneurysm during a training session last November and later passed away following complications with corrective surgery.

The 33-year-old was a stalwart of the CEBL, having played five seasons in the league with three different teams, the last two of which were with his hometown Sea Bears — a fact that Posthumus often pointed to with pride as his decade-long basketball journey spanning over 10 countries led him back to where it all began.

But his legacy extends much further than simply being a part of Canada’s largest professional sports league. To the point that the CEBL’s story cannot be told without a full chapter on Posthumus.

The 6-foot-10 centre was a member of the league’s inaugural champion Saskatchewan Rattlers in 2019, even starting alongside Championship Weekend MVP and eventual Sea Bears teammate Alex Campbell in their title-clinching win. Fast forward to 2021, he joined the Ottawa BlackJacks for their playoff run and in his team debut recorded the CEBL’s first-ever 20-20 game with 23 points and 20 rebounds in a quarterfinal victory. And when Winnipeg entered the fold as the league’s newest franchise in 2023, they wasted no time in making Posthumus the first player signing and captain in franchise history.

From there, it didn’t take long for him to keep adding to the record books. In the Sea Bears' inaugural game, it was Posthumus who brought the Canada Life Centre to its feet as he scored Winnipeg’s first-ever Target Score winner. In true big man fashion, he corralled a missed shot and bounced it in off the glass before sprinting away in celebration.

That moment was one of many that Taylor said came to mind when thinking about Posthumus’ legacy in Winnipeg.

“He really helped establish the whole organization,” the Sea Bears bench boss explained as he prepared for his first season coaching the team without its captain by his side. “Chad was one of the key guys to maintaining our values and structure. He was one of those guys who never wavered … a strengthening force and glue for our team.”

Most of Taylor’s other memories about the hometown hero were connected to his off-court antics, whether it was the smile Posthumus routinely greeted folks with during morning meetings or the big man’s laugh-inducing “quirky” stretches during practice.

“Chad was just such a positive, bigger than life personality … there was nobody that loved Winnipeg and the Sea Bears more,” Taylor added.

And that passion extended off the court as well, as Posthumus was well known for his work throughout his local community. His efforts were recognized in March as the Winnipeg native was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal, a national honour recognizing Canadians for significant contributions to their country, region or communities.

Posthumus was a staunch representative of the Sea Bears throughout youth camps while often acting as a spokesperson for a variety of causes, such as Diabetes Canada, Buckets & Borders and others.

That spirit of kindness was present no matter what Posthumus did, as Taylor credited the big man for consistently going out of his way to connect with coaches and players. Just ask Emmanuel Akot, who fondly thinks back to when the Sea Bears captain welcomed him to the team.

“He was just selfless,” said the forward, who re-signed with his hometown ahead of the 2025 season. “I remember the first time I came back to Winnipeg, I hadn’t been back a while … he invited me to shoot around. That’s the type of teammate he was. It was never about him, it was about us.”

When asked if any moments throughout training camp these last few weeks might’ve brought up memories of Posthumus, Akot was quick to mention how any instances of laughter or positivity were immediately associated with the captain’s impact.

But that wasn’t his only answer.

“Watching Kyler Filewich play,” was the forward’s follow-up, pointing to play-style similarities between the Sea Bears' first local signing and their most recent one. “He reminds me a lot of Chad.”

Which might not simply be a coincidence, as Filewich said he often paid close attention to Posthumus whenever he returned to Winnipeg between NCAA campaigns and watched the Sea Bears play.

And ahead of his first professional basketball season, the rookie wants to continue following in Posthumus’ footsteps.

“Leading with my voice, providing physicality on both ends and on the glass, those are things I’ve taken from him and things he was really great at,” Filewich explained.

“So, I’m just trying to contribute in that way as well.”

An attitude his head coach fully supports, encouraging the team to “use Chad for what he was, a great Sea Bear, a great role model and example for what we want our players to be.”

Which is why the 23-year-old won’t be the only one adopting Posthumus’ “all in” mentality as described by Taylor. Among the many ways the team will honour its captain — retiring his No. 33 during a pre-game ceremony on Friday and wearing “33 forever” patches throughout the season — they’ll also serve as a reminder of his legacy with their play on the court.

“(We’re) dedicating this season to him,” Akot said. “Going out hard every practice, taking it seriously every game, because we all know how much he cared about the Sea Bears and basketball here in Winnipeg.

“So to pay our respects to him, we’ll go hard every day, because I know that’s what he really wants.”

And beyond effort levels, the Sea Bears are ready to mimic Posthumus’ selfless brand of basketball stylistically as well.

“We feel like what’s going to take us to the next level, and bring post-season success, will be all about team play,” Taylor explained, noting how previous iterations of the team were driven primarily through top-end talent, giving credit to a pair of former Sea Bears and prolific scorers in Teddy Allen and Justin Wright-Foreman.

“On both ends of the floor, (taking) steps to be more connected as a team. We’ve got good personalities … we’ve got some high IQ players and guys that will play great team basketball.

Both Akot and Filewich echoed those sentiments while adding “versatile” and “unique” as descriptors for the 2025 Sea Bears.

So as Winnipeg gets ready for a meaningful season, aiming to build the right habits ahead of its eventual bye to a Western Conference Final — perks of being host for Championship Weekend — and just two wins shy of a first title in franchise history, the team will have plenty on its mind.

On one hand, they’ll be competing for a fanbase that has consistently rallied around them throughout their ebbs and flows.

“We absolutely love Winnipeg,” Taylor said while proudly referencing the many times the Sea Bears have set attendance records, owning three of the top four single-game marks in CEBL history while boasting a league-best showing of 10,580 fans for a playoff contest.

“We’ve gotten off to an exciting start the first two summers, and this season we want to do everything we can … to be a team fans love to watch, and hopefully they can see great team basketball and how we’ve evolved.”

On the other hand, the Sea Bears will be playing for Posthumus’ legacy, as they have no doubt their captain will be on the path with them in lockstep.

“I still believe that Chad is with us,” Taylor said.

“He was all in for our team, all in for our organization, and we know that he would’ve been all in for this Championship Weekend.”

So as the race toward a CEBL title gets underway, the Sea Bears will keep both of those motivations in mind while waiting for other teams to meet them at the finish line — all with hopes of accomplishing one goal, according to their head coach.

“We want to put the ‘win’ back in Winnipeg.”

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