Fraser Valley Bandits Announce Virgil Hill and Kyle Graves as Assistant Coaches

ABBOTSFORD, MARCH 12, 2019 – The Fraser Valley Bandits have announced that Virgil Hill and Kyle Graves will be the team’s Assistant Coaches for its inaugural season in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL), the Official First Division Professional League Partner of Canada Basketball.

Hill and Graves join Head Coach and General Manager Peter Guarasci to help form a trio of leaders on the Bandits’ bench. Together, they will be tasked with evaluating prospective talent in advance of the CEBL Entry Draft on March 16, and also assessing the Bandits’ Training Camp roster in advance of the team’s home opener at Abbotsford Centre on Thursday, May 9, against the Guelph Nighthawks.

“It gives me immense pleasure to announce Virgil and Kyle as our assistant coaches. Together, they bring decades of experience as both players and coaches,” Guarasci said. “However, what I’m most excited about is their reputation as teachers, rather than coaches. Virgil and Kyle are lifelong learners with a true ability to connect with students and athletes. Their personable approach will greatly benefit our roster.”

Hill’s decorated basketball lineage extends back to Ontario, where he won a silver medal at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations Provincial Championships. Following high school, Hill took his talents to SFU, where he played for the men’s basketball team for four years as a guard and small forward throughout the early 1990s. He led by example as a starter for two seasons and a team captain in his senior year as well. When not contributing as a key cog in the Clan’s rotation, Hill was a two-sport athlete, playing varsity football as well. Hill’s integral role in SFU’s athletics community paved the way for a six-season stint as an Assistant Coach with the Clan, in which he also coached British Columbia’s Under-19 Team to a National Championship in 1998. In 2000, Hill was named Head Coach of the Laurentian Voyageurs in Ontario University Athletics (OUA).

Following a seven-year tenure in Sudbury, in which Hill also represented Canada at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daego, South Korea, Hill relocated to become Head of Basketball with the Collingwood School in West Vancouver, where over the course of eight pivotal seasons, he helped sculpt the program into an annual provincial contender, capped off by a Provincial Championship in 2016.

After serving as Head Coach of the Clan’s men’s basketball program in 2015-16, Hill became Fraser Academy’s Director of Athletics, where today he prides himself on contributing to the development of the complete student through a holistic approach to student-athlete learning.

“I am grateful for a special opportunity to make a difference in Canadian basketball history. This current generation of Canadian basketball players is unlike any that we’ve seen before,” Hill said. “It is an honour to have an opportunity to work alongside them in an effort to provide Canadians with a domestic and elite basketball and entertainment product that will impact Canada for years to come.”

Graves’ basketball roots run deep in the Fraser Valley. After leading Chilliwack’s Sardis Secondary School to its first-ever provincial tournament appearance in 2000 and helping the team earn a top-15 provincial ranking in 2002, Graves took his talents to the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) where he emerged as a force on the glass and in the post for the UFV Cascades. Graves served as the Cascades’ team captain for four years, twice being named a British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association All-Star (now known as the Pacific Western Athletic Association). He was instrumental in helping UFV win two BCCAA Championships prior to driving UFV to its first-ever Canadian Interuniversity Sport (now known as U
SPORTS) birth against the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Today, Graves continues to develop as a leader in the Chilliwack community. In addition to teaching at Sardis Secondary School, Graves is the Founder of the Chilliwack Basketball Club. His program serves as a stepping stone for Chilliwack youth to access elite basketball instruction and has become the home of skills training in the region, as well as boys and girls club programming thanks to more than 200 players joining the club’s elementary and high school ranks annually. Before returning to Chilliwack, Graves served as an Assistant Coach for the UBC Okanagan Heat and the UFV Cascades.

Graves has worked with some of the best players in B.C. as a Provincial Team Head Coach and with Canada Basketball’s Tall Player Camps. He founded the Tall Player Project in B.C. for boys and girls with former Canadian National Team players Levon Kendall and Ransford Brempong.

“I am thrilled to join Virgil as part of Peter’s staff. I would like to thank Bandits President Lee Genier, Joe Raso, Peter Guarasci and the CEBL for the opportunity to help develop some of Canada’s finest professional athletes,” Graves said. “The CEBL is committed to developing all areas of Canadian basketball, from players to coaches. I am honoured to be a part of a league with a bright future. I look forward to coaching the Bandits for all the dedicated basketball fans in the Fraser Valley and allowing the kids I have coached to have a dream to play professionally in their own backyard.”

The CEBL opens its inaugural season in May with franchises in Fraser Valley (Abbotsford), Edmonton, Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), Guelph, Hamilton and Niagara (St. Catharines). CEBL teams will play a 20- game regular season from May 9 to August 15, culminating with a league championship playoff at a site to be announced.

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For media inquiries, please contact:
Andrew Savory, Marketing and Communications Manager, Fraser Valley Bandits, (604) 217-6213
asavory@thebandits.ca