Following a national search, the Queen's Gaels are excited to announce Wumi Agunbiade as their new Assistant Coach, Women's Basketball starting May 2021.  

Agunbiade joins the Gaels from the Guelph Nighthawks, Canadian Professional Basketball Team. She was an assistant coach, assisting in athlete development, execution of practices and games. Prior to that she was a Junior Coach with the Raptors 905, as part of their Mentee Coaching program. Agunbiade founded Hoopers Loop in Oct. 2019, a program aimed at leveraging sports discipline, mentorship as a platform to the empowerment of young girls, including mentoring student-athletes & volunteers, with an emphasis on service delivery, quality and work effort.  

As a former athlete herself, Agunbiade played four years at Duquesne University, where she was Rookie of the Year and a three time All Conference Athlete. She was also a member of the Canadian National team for 5 years, where the team won a silver medal at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korean. After graduation she played three years professionally overseas in Germany, Italy and Romania. Following her professional career, Wumi completed two years as a graduate assistant coach for the University of Pittsburgh's women's basketball team while completing a Masters of Business Admin there.

"As a person who advocates for passion and purpose, I am honoured to be joining the Queen's Gaels Women's Basketball Program as the assistant coach. The institution and program have created an exceptional repertoire that I look forward to adding to with my experience, knowledge, and drive. Beginning this chapter with Head Coach Claire Meadows will be a mark in history and I am confident in her abilities as a leader," said Wumi. 

"We are pleased to welcome Wumi to the Gaels family to continue to build on the legacy that the Women's Basketball program has cultivated over the years. Wumi possesses tremendous passion for excellence, strong technical/tactical knowledge, extensive leadership and mentoring skills as well as experience working with elite level athletes at all levels to achieve their goals.  We are very excited to turn the leadership of our women's basketball team to Coach Meadows and Coach Agunbiade and have great confidence in our teams' future success," says Leslie Dal Cin, Executive Director, Athletics & Recreation. 

The Gaels Women's basketball team also announces the signing of three new recruits. 

Lireesa Gokhool-Jefferson (Maple, Ontario), a 5'11 guard who attends Bill Crothers Secondary School.  Lireesa was nominated to the 2020 BioSteel All Canadian Games Girls List, led her team (Bill Crothers) in 3-point shooting percentage with an impressive 41.2% average and was awarded OSBA academic achievement in 2020. Lireesa is planning to take film and media studies at Queen's. 

Mikayla McFarlane (Kingston, Ontario), a 6' forward from Frontenac Secondary School. Mikayla was a 2018 OBA All Star, 2019 Juel Prep All Star, OFSAA Gold 2019 and High School MVP in Basketball, Volleyball and Soccer. Mikayla's program of choice at Queen's is Kinesiology. 

Willo Thomas (Whitby, Ontario) a 6' forward who also attends Bill Crothers Secondary School. Willo was awarded the TRC Sportsmanship Award in 2020 and the Durham Elite ASAD Basketball Award 2019, she is was also part of the OSBA All-Academic Team in 2019 and 2020. Willo plans to take Arts and Science at Queen's.

For more information, visit gogaelsgo.com.