OUR COACHES

Ron Hopkins - Director of Basketball

Ron Hopkins has been coaching both men’s and women’s basketball for nearly 33 years at all levels from community league to summer basketball clubs to college teams.  He as been an assitant coach for NAIT as well as The Kings University womens basketball programs. As well he has been the head coach of Bellerose Composite High School’s Senior Girl’s Basketball team. Upon starting with Bellerose, the team quickly became one of the top teams in Tier 2 Basketball in Edmonton. He also helped Scona High School achieve their first ever #1 Provincial Ranking. Throughout his career, he has been a critical part of helping three different colleges change their history.  His club teams have been successful both nationally and internationally.  Ron has coached over "1000 athletes" that have gone to play at the post-secondary level in both Canada and the United States.   Ron’s hard work, determination, and passion for the game are the cornerstones of Edmonton.   

Marvin Washington

Marvin Washington has coached basketball for almost 20 years. Originally from the USA, Marvin's first love was track and field, as he was a track athlete at "Northwestern University". His love affair started with the sport when he was a university student on the track team. Before the start of his last year at university, the school announced they were cutting the track team, with nothing to do between 3 and 5pm for the first time since the 3rd grade, Marvin started playing pick up basketball. From there, he went on to coach his nephew's community teams. After obtaining his PhD in Organizational Behavior, and having his own sons, Marvin and his family eventually moved to Canada when Marvin was offered a job as a professor in the school of business. As his sons grew, so did Marvin's coaching career. Over the past 12 years, Marvin has coached the Edmonton Zone team to a 3rd place finish at the Alberta Summer Games, he was an assistant coach for Team Alberta's Boys U15 and U16 team. He was the head coach of DS Mackenzie jr girls team for 3 years and the head coach of DS Mackenzie sr boys team for 3 years. More recently he was the assistant coach for the Harry Ainlay's senior girls' basketball team. For the past 7 summers he has coached with Swoosh (both on the girls side and the boys side). His boys spring league team won the Jasper Place Spring League won back to back championships and he has coached girls teams to numerous tournament victories (in Canada as well as in the US).

Avery Harrison

Avery Harrison recently guided the Olds women’s basketball team to their first Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) national championship. Avery's third National title as a head coach and fourth overall. 

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Coach Harrison began his coaching career at Hugh Sutherland High School in Carstairs coaching alongside Blaine Vadnais. In their time together, the team accumulated a 139-15 league and playoff record, taking home gold and silver medals from three provincial championships. After graduating from the University of Calgary, Harrison began his ACAC coaching career as an assistant with the SAIT Trojans men’s team in the 1980s. In his five seasons with the men’s team, the Trojans won four ACAC banners and appeared in three consecutive CCAA gold medal games, winning in 1986 to cap a perfect 34-0 season. 

After being named Head Coach in 1990-91 he guided the team to two ACAC Silver medal finishes and two trips to Nationals. He then coached at Mount Royal College for two seasons taking the team to two ACAC championships, and an appearance in the CCAA National Championship game in 1998.  The team went 47-1 in ACAC league and play-offs games over that time. Returning to SAIT in 1998-99 he coached them to a 19-1 regular-season record and their first CCAA National Championship.  The Trojans followed that up with another National title in 2001. After the 2005-06 season, Harrison took a short break from coaching but returned for a two-year stint as an assistant with Mount Royal University.  He was then named Head Coach at Lethbridge College where he remained for four years taking them to a Nationals appearance in 2012.  After a one-year break, he returned to the ACAC basketball court as an Assistant Coach with Steve Shoults at St. Mary’s University, and in two seasons the team went to the ACAC final earning two Silvers and the first appearance at the National Championships in the school history.

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In 22 years as a head Coach his teams have won 5 ACAC championships, 3 Silver and 5 Bronze, as well as a Silver and 3 Gold at the CCAA National championships. He has coached 43 ACAC All-conference players, 11 all Canadians, and three CCAA Players of the Year. His cumulative regular season and playoff record is 326-168 (510-263 overall).  As an assistant, he was part of four ACAC Gold medals, three Silver and one Bronze, as well as two silver and one Gold at the CCAA national championships. Harrison picked up his fifth ACAC Coach of the Year award in 2018-19, a season that saw him pick up his 500th career win as a head coach in the ACAC (Feb. 8, 2019, vs. RDC). He also has two CCAA Coach of the Year awards on his resume. Coach Harrison has 34 years of coaching in the ACAC, spanning five different decades, and we are proud to have Coach Harrison as our lead instructor. 

Rob

Rob played basketball in high school, but hockey was his main sport when he was younger. He played AAA midget, high school and junior hockey in Nova Scotia. 

After high school he started coaching. He coached baseball and hockey at various levels and has coached teams for over thirty years. He started coaching basketball in Winnipeg in 2011  when his oldest son started playing.  It was after he and his family moved to Alberta where he started to get more involved in basketball as both his sons were playing competitively and he coached a couple teams. In the past few years, he coached several teams in the U15 and U18 Girls and Boys divisions in the EYBA and for club teams in Edmonton. Rob was the EYBA Coach of the Year for the U18 girls division for the 2019 Fall season.

Along with his coaching experience, he has been on the Board of Directors for Community clubs in both Winnipeg and Spruce Grove and has brought that experience and knowledge with him to Swoosh for the past two years and helps us with administrative functions, schedules our tournaments and of course coaches! 

He loves to see the players develop and improve their skills. He is happy to be a part of the Swoosh family!