Pacific Division Championships: 2003-04, ‘06-07, '11-12
Pioneer Division Championships: 2014-15
Canada West Championships: 2006-07, ‘07-08, '11-12, '14-15
CIS Championships: 2003-04, ‘05-06, ‘07-08
Canada West Coach of the Year: 2003-04
CIS Coach of the Year: 2003-04
Overall Record: 434-218 (.666)
Conference Record: 279-136 (.672)
Deb Huband continues to build her resume as the the longest serving and most successful women’s basketball coach in UBC history. She is entering her 21st season behind the bench for the Thunderbirds, a school record, and she is the only UBC basketball head coach, male or female, to have led the school to three CIS Championships.
Last season, UBC won its fourth league championship under Huband's watch, after an exciting 69-68 triumph at War Memorial Gymnasium over Saskatchewan. The team won bronze at the CIS women's basketball Final 8 in Quebec City. Kris Young was named the Canada West MVP for the second time in her career.
Huband is the all-time winningest head coach in Canada West history. On February 1, 2014 Huband earned her 400th career victory as UBC's head coach, a 56-53 win over Calgary.
UBC finished the 2013-14 season second in the Pacific Division with a record of 16-6. Hosting Saskatchewan in the Canada West Quarter-Finals, the Huskies would win the best of three series 2-1 on their way to winning the Canada West Championships. For a second straight year Kris Young was named an All-Canadian, earning second-team honours.
in 2012-13 UBC finished fourth in the Canada West after the regular season with a record of 17-5. Unfortunately, they were bounced from the playoffs in the Canada West quarterfinals losing 2-0 in the best-of-three series against Alberta. The season saw the rise of Kris Young to national prominence. She was named the Canada West Player of the Year and a First-Team All-Canadian.
In 2011-12 Huband led the T-Birds to a Canada West title and a trip to the CIS National Championship, unfortunately losing in the final to Windsor 69-53. Overall, it was another outstanding season in which UBC was 15-3 during the regular season and 6-1 in the Canada West playoffs and CIS National Tournament.
In 2010-11 UBC was 17-7 conference record and finished fifith in the Canada West league standings before they bowed out in the playoffs with a series loss to Alberta.
The 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons saw Huband lead the T-Birds to identical 21-2 regular season records as they went on to capture back-to-back Canada West Championships in addition to the 2007-08 CIS crown, the seventh CIS title in the program’s history.
The 2003-04 season was a banner year for Huband as she led UBC to their first CIS title in exactly 30 years with a roster of 14 that featured 10 players in either their first or second year, a testament to her ability to recruit and coach top young talent.
In recognition for her team’s success, Huband was named the CIS Coach of the Year for the 2003-04 season after sharing the award at the conference level. After the team’s 2007-08 triumph, she was named the 2008 Basketball BC University Coach of the Year.
Huband came to UBC as the head coach in the 1995-96 season but she was an assistant on the Point Grey campus before that, helping out from 1988-91.
Huband has also extensive experience as a coach with the national team program. Most recently she served as the mentor coach on the Cadette women's team who competed at the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship in Rodez, France. She helped coach Canada to a silver medal at the 1999 Pan Am Games, was an assistant at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was the head coach of Canada’s World University Games team at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Korea. She also coached at the 2005 World University Games in Turkey as an assistant, and helped coach the Canadian U20 team in the summer of 2006. In 2009 she was co-head coach of Canada’s World University Games team at the 25th Summer Universiade in Belgrade, Serbia.
One of the finest players that Canada has ever produced, Huband joined the national team as a player in 1978 and eventually captained the squad to a fourth-place finish at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She was also part of the bronze-medal winning world championship teams in ‘79 and ‘86.
A graduate of Bishop’s and UBC (Masters of Science in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology), Huband was a three-time CIS All-Canadian and has been inducted into both the Canadian Basketball and Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame. Recently, she was inducted into the Basketball Ontario Hall of Fame and, along with her 1976-77 teammates, the Concordia Hall of Fame. She has also been honoured by the Nepean Sports Hall of Fame and has a place on the Bishop’s University Wall of Distinction.
Huband is still tied for the all-time CIS record for points in a game, scoring 50 with Bishop’s in 1981-82.
