A pair of Thunderbirds will be playing together on the opposite end of the globe from Vancouver this summer, as
Olivia Weekes, one of the stars of this past season's T-Birds squad, and
Jessica Hanson, current UBC lead assistant coach and former team captain, have both signed with the Bulleen Boomers in Australia's Big V league.
The Boomers' season got underway at the end of March, with both Weekes and Hanson set to join up with the team in Bulleen (a suburb of Melbourne) in the coming days. The regular season finishes in early August, followed by the playoffs with the grand final happening at the end of the month.
This is Weekes' first opportunity to play pro ball after finishing her fifth and final season with the blue and gold, while Hanson has plenty of professional experience from time spent playing in Germany and Portugal since she graduated from UBC in 2020.
"I'm super excited, I feel like this is everything I've worked for in my career," said Weekes. "Being able to get the opportunity to go to Australia, play and travel, and do it all with Jess too is really exciting and I can't wait to go."
"It's really special," remarked Hanson. "I was chatting to the coach when I first got the contract, and he was looking for players to complement me. And I said, 'well, I don't know if you can sign two imports but I know a girl,' and I sent him her film and he was sold.
"It's really cool – I've known Liv since she came in because I've been training with the girls every summer, so to go from her friend in that sense, to then coaching her, and now we're going to be teammates, it's pretty special."
Weekes is coming off her best U SPORTS season, one where she averaged 16.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game in Canada West play, both of those numbers top-three in the conference. A four-time Canada West All-Star and a Second Team All-Canadian in 2025-26, Weekes started 87 of her 96 career Canada West games, making the third-most starts in program history.
The Winnipeg native ranks fourth all-time in UBC's Canada West history in scoring (1,239 points) and second in total rebounds (751). She owns the program record for free throws made (331) and is also top 10 in steals (151 – eighth), blocks (50 – ninth) and minutes played (2,489 – ninth).
This past season Weekes had 10 double-doubles, all of them coming in her final 17 games. She averaged 17.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.3 steals per game in the Canada West playoffs, leading UBC to a second straight silver medal finish and a trip to the U SPORTS Final 8 in Laval. She recorded 24 points, nine rebounds and four assists against TMU in her final game for UBC.
"I can't even put it into words," she said on what her time as a Thunderbird has meant to her. "I'm so, so grateful, it's been the best five years here. I'm sad to let it go, but I think the girls on the team and the friendships I've created here I'm going to remember for a lifetime, and it's been the best five years of my life.
"I couldn't think of anyone better to go down with," she added on now beginning this new chapter alongside Hanson. "Obviously she's played professionally before, and knowing the experiences she's been through and having someone to lean on in that way is really great."
For Hanson, this summer represents a unique opportunity to continue playing at a high level while also still serving as the lead assistant coach for the Thunderbirds program, a role she began last year under new head coach
Dave Taylor.
"I'm super excited," she said. "I'm very grateful to Dave and the department for making this work, it's a bit of the best of both worlds. I feel like I'm in a great place career-wise here as lead assistant coach, but also getting one last go-around in Australia – the last place that I wanted to get to while wearing that player hat."
Hanson most recently played for Quinta dos Lombos in the Portuguese Liga Feminina, part of a professional career that has spanned half a decade. During her time at UBC she served as team captain for three seasons, and in 100 Canada West games Hanson scored 1,108 points, dished out 320 assists (third-most in program history), and grabbed 333 rebounds. She also ranks fourth in the UBC record book for three-pointers made (120) and fifth in total minutes played (2908).
A Canada West All-Star in 2019-20 and winner of the UBC Women's Rookie of the Year at the 2016 Big Block Awards, Hanson continues to build on her Thunderbird legacy as now a key member of the coaching staff, and is using this opportunity with the Boomers to benefit her coaching career going forward as well.
"The duality of it is unique and special. What's been very cool is in some individual workouts when I hop in with the girls right now – preparing me for Australia – I will do the drills with them, and I'll be able to say, 'no I don't like how we're doing it that way,' and I can tweak it. It's fun to look at it with a coaching hat but also a player's hat…it influences the way I give them feedback and the way I can relate to them."
Hanson and Weekes will aim to help Bulleen repeat as Big V champions, with the Boomers winning the league in both 2023 and 2025. The Boomers have reached the grand final in each of the last four seasons, facing the Wyndham Devils on three of those occasions.
