Troy Stevenson keeps his eye on the ball as the new head of the University's men's basketball program
The new head coach of the Waterloo Warriors basketball program has been passionate about all things basketball since he was a toddler.
The youngest of five, Troy Stevenson, a 2015 chemical engineering graduate, spent years watching his siblings play high school basketball.
“I was the half-time show – the chubby little guy running around trying to shoot baskets,” he laughs.
Stevenson took to the court himself as a high school student and then as a Waterloo Warrior while he was an undergraduate chemical engineering 
student.
Although his sights were set on a professional basketball career, he quit Waterloo’s team after three seasons to focus on school.
Troy Stevenson was named head coach of the Warriors' men's basketball program earlier this year.
Shortly after hanging up his jersey, Stevenson was hired as an assistant for McMaster University’s basketball program, a role he held while finishing his degree.
When McMaster’s lead assistant, Justin Gunter, became head coach of Waterloo’s basketball program in 2015, Stevenson moved with him. After Gunter left for a financial role at McMaster last year, Stevenson was named interim coach of the Warriors, a position that is now permanent.
Although COVID-19 sidelined his team members, Stevenson expects they will return to action in 2021 putting into motion new skills and game plays learned remotely.
One of Stevenson’s main goals is to have a nationally recognized basketball program.
“I don’t see the value in not aiming high,” he says.
Article originally published in the October 2020 issue of WEAL
