Braeden Floyd couldn’t strategize his way out of this one.
On March 20, his 24th birthday, the Arborg product clocked in for a morning workout with the University of Winnipeg Wesmen men’s basketball team, where he serves as an assistant coach.
Around the corner waited fellow assistant coach Josh Reddy, with a plate of whipped cream labelled for Floyd’s face.
Smush.
The birthday boy happily welcomed the hazing— it was tradition where he was headed.
“That was my ‘welcome to the league’ moment,” Floyd said.
A day earlier, Floyd accepted a position as coaching operations intern with the Winnipeg Sea Bears.
The job description is a working document but will largely have Floyd serve as the rover for the coaching staff, aiding the team wherever he’s needed. He’s already helped compile scouting reports on opposing players and created a database of stats that will be crucial to head coach Mike Taylor’s game plans throughout the season.
“Just helping them out as much as I can,” Floyd said. “It’s not as much as I’d like it to be, obviously. I want to keep growing, but I’m helping those coaches as much as I can and learning as much as I can.
“Everything (Taylor) says, I just want to digest and be a sponge.”
The Sea Bears made its Canadian Elite Basketball League debut last summer, returning pro hoops to the provincial capital for the first time in 22 years.
The expansion franchise was a smash, setting numerous league attendance records, including a new regular season mark with 7,329 fans taking in the home-opener against the Vancouver Bandits — a 90-85 triumph — at Canada Life Centre, and playoff attendance record after 10,580 people packed the downtown arena for the franchise’s first post-season contest.
Floyd was at the home opener. He began to dream what it would be like leading a pro team.
“You always hear Winnipeg is a basketball town but you don’t really see it until you go to a Sea Bears game. That atmosphere is insane and I’m really exited to see it from a different perspective this year,” he said. “Opportunities like this don’t always come so I don’t want to rush through it. Just take it in and see where I’m at.”
Floyd was raised on a farm just outside Arborg with no tangible connection to basketball. He’s always liked to lead others, even as a hockey goalie while growing up when he would go out of his way to coach up his teammates during practice.
In Grade 10, he took to the hardwood and quickly fell in love with hoops In Grade 12, he landed his first coaching gig with the Grade Eight squad at Arborg Early Middle School.
“Those kids just want to run around and play basketball, and it was fun to give them discipline and structure,” Floyd said.
“I just love being a part of teams and I just love that aspect of it. I like being a leader and role model for people so I try to do that the best I can and I think that’s coaching for me.”
Floyd’s career took a major step in 2023, first taking over as the junior varsity boys coach at Glenlawn Collegiate and later joining the Wesmen staff as an intern, where he helped with scouting and tracking stats.
Reddy, also an assistant coach on the Sea Bears, spearheaded Floyd’s hire.
During the Wesmen season, the two often entertained the idea of one day working together on the pro team as Floyd became a trusted member of Mike Raimbault’s staff at the U of W.
“When you first start with not knowing somebody, it’s about building that trust,” said Reddy, who joined the Wesmen and Sea Bears coaching staffs after moving from Victoria last fall.
“Not only just me, but coach Raimbault. Coach Raimbault wouldn’t have Braden on his staff if it’s someone he doesn’t trust. That trust has to be built over time and as most interns come through and realize it’s not everything it’s cracked up to be — all the grunt work — Braeden was one of those people that just kept pushing through and kept doing all the small work.”
And Floyd plans to continue separating himself over the next two years as he works toward an education degree and climbs the basketball ranks.
His dream is to be the head coach of a professional team one day. If that means taking a few more pies to the face, so be it.
“That’s the ultimate goal,” Floyd said.
“I just want to keep building my resume right now and keep going with the Wesmen, try to keep coaching at Glenlawn, see how much more I can do with the Sea Bears and keep building these connections so that when I’m done school I can grow into that head coaching role.”
