2018
Rick Plato:
Two-time AUS Coach of the Year, Rick Plato has just completed his fifth season with the Tigers. In his first four seasons, he has led the Tigers to three consecutive AUS championship titles and a program-best bronze medal at the 2016-17 U SPORTS Final 8 Men’s Basketball Championship.
Plato started coaching the MSVU Mystics in 1989 leading them to 14 appearances at the national championship, including two national medals (bronze in 1992 and silver in 2008). His teams won 13 ACAA conference championships and were CCAA semifinalists in six of the last eight seasons. Plato was named ACAA Coach of the Year on 13 occasions and received the national CCAA Coach of the Year honour in 2009.
Coach Plato has a long-standing commitment to improving the level of youth basketball players in Nova Scotia through his camp programs. He plays a very active role in the delivery of camps, stressing the need to work hard and have fun to achieve success.
Plato served the Saint Mary’s University men’s basketball team from 1976-81 where he earned MVP and Athlete of the Year honours in 1981, his appreciation for the role of university sport in student life is apparent. As a two-time CIAU (USPORTS) champion (1978 & 1979), he uses that experience to help his student-athletes grow not only as basketball players, but as young men ready to contribute to the community and who are prepared for life after school and university basketball.
Bev Greenlaw
As an extraordinary example of both a coach and mentor, Bev Greenlaw has certainly met the criteria for “significant contributions to the development of basketball in Nova Scotia.”
Bev practices an enthusiastic and caring approach that has moved entire communities of youth to become better players and people. Outside of his family, Bev’s deep-rooted love for the sport of basketball is only surpassed by the player relationships he has developed for many years on and off the court. His desire, willingness and active involvement in giving back to the sport continues to this day as new relationships are built, and lives are positively impacted by his presence.
In particular, his dedication and involvement with the Community YMCA, shaped outstanding athletes whom emerged from this program. Bev became a key part of the major shift taking place in Community Y Basketball, fostering a new era of skill development and off-court player responsibility. He did so through programs such as “Each One Teach One’ and ‘Carry the Books as Well as the Ball,’ and by creating an atmosphere of total concern and care for each and every athlete as a whole.
In the years following, Bev developed the University of King’s College, Dalhousie and Acadia into national Top Ten programs, producing All-Canadians and Player of the Year candidates in the process. These years included several Conference Coach of the Year awards; culminating with the CCAA National Coach of the Year Award.
In four years as head coach of the Horton Griffins Girls high school basketball team, the Griffins captured Horton’s first-ever back-to- back NSSAF Division 1 Provincial Championships, (the first back-to-back championships in Horton’s history), and never finished below third in the province.
Bev and his teams have been selected Coach/Team of the Year multiple times at a number of different levels, including:
- National Coach of the Year – Canadian Colleges Athletic Association
- NS College Conference Coach of the Year – several
- AUS Conference Coach of the Year – University/CIS
- Sport Nova Scotia Coach of the Year
- Basketball Nova Scotia Coach of the Year – several
- Basketball Nova Scotia Team of the Year – several
- Sport Nova Scotia Team of the Year – twice