Canada Basketball CEO Wayne Parrish is taking on a new challenge, but don’t worry hoops fans, he won’t be straying too far from the organization he has helped revive during the past two years.

Parrish was appointed Tuesday as Postmedia’s chief transformation officer by his former Sun Media colleague, Paul Godfrey, Postmedia’s CEO.

Postmedia is the owner of Canwest’s newspapers and Internet sites, including the National Post.

Calling the gig “an opportunity that just came up” and “a really interesting challenge,” Parrish said he is not leaving Canada Basketball and will “stay on in a leadership position at the board level.”

“I plan to remain very actively involved,” Parrish said. “Ultimately, this will allow us to strengthen the staff and bring in more resources.”

Parrish has spent time as executive editor and sports editor at the Toronto Sun, was a renowned sports columnist with the Toronto Star and was formerly president and CEO of the Canoe Online web portal.

Under Parrish, Basketball Canada has gone from a struggling entity that was bleeding money, to one that now “seems to be going in the right direction.”

Indeed, Parrish helped extract some much-needed federal funding for Canada’s sporting organizations. The recent federal budget earmarked $6 million to Canadian team sports, $600,000 of which headed to Canada Basketball.

He also helped to form agreements with Nike and with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Ltd. that gives the program the use of the Air Canada Centre, along with $500,000 over three years.

Canada’s basketball teams have been increasingly successful on the court of late as well. Two recent men’s developmental teams have earned bronze medals at international competitions, the women’s program is on the rise and more potential NBA players than ever before loom on the horizon.

“We’ve got a lot of momentum right now,” Parrish said.


Source: Toronto Sun