Our Founder
Meet Coach Amy
Amy Barlow (nee Ogidan) has been involved in basketball as an athlete and coach for 21 years. Coach Amy first fell in love with coaching upon accepting her athletic scholarship to the University of Winnipeg. Her coach Tanya Mackay encouraged her to become involved in coaching summer camps and player development programs. Initially unsure of what to study in university, her love for coaching led her to pursue a degree in Education to become a Physical Education teacher and coach. By the time she graduated in 2012, her coaching experience was vast, including Newcomer/Refugee Recreation Programs; Boys and Girls Club; Wesmen Summer Camps; and, Basketball Manitoba High-Performance Programs, and more.
In 2012, Coach Amy began teaching at Maples Collegiate where she worked as a Physical Educator and volunteered as Head Coach of the Varsity Girls' Basketball Program. Coach Amy passionately fulfilled this coaching role from 2012-2018, at which point she went on maternity leave with the first of three daughters. Also starting in 2012, she served as a coach in Manitoba's High Performance Training Program, TAP (formerly Centre For Performance). In 2014 Coach Amy was invited by Basketball Canada to be a guest coach for the Western Canada Age Assessment Identification Camp at the Women's National Team training center in Edmonton, Alberta. She was also selected as the Head Coach for the 2014 15U Manitoba Provincial Team, which participated at Nationals in Alberta.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, a first generation Canadian born to Nigerian Immigrants, she played four years for the Manitoba Provincial Team, which included participating in Canada Games in 2005. Standing at 5’11”, Coach Amy was a gifted athlete and talented player. At the age of 14 she was selected to the invite-only Canada Nike Camp which hosted 50 of the top female basketball players from across Canada. She was one of the youngest players ever to be invited. Coach Amy received Division 1-3 NCAA interest as a high school athlete, but chose to stay in Winnipeg. Having grown up watching the cohorts of University of Winnipeg female athletes during their national championship runs, she wanted to play for the Wesmen. In her rookie year with The University of Winnipeg Wesmen, she was selected to the CIS Rookie-All-Canadian Team.
She has been recognized as an Academic All-Canadian and Player of the Month several times. As a member of the Student National Team, she traveled to Beijing prior to the 2008 Olympics to play a series of exhibition games against the Chinese National Team. Today Coach Amy is a wife to husband Hamon and mother of three daughters; 4, 2, and <1. She continues to work at Maples Collegiate and loves to make time for coaching when her family life allows. Coach Amy is excited to embark upon this new adventure, providing opportunities for her girls and other children to experience basketball in a fun environment at a young age!
Testimonials
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"Amy has always led by example. She was a hard working player, and now coach, who had a vision of what she wanted to accomplish and then worked at it until it became reality. After a standout university career who also represented Canada on the international stage, Amy stepped into coaching. She made an immediate impact on her school teams at Maples Collegiate, and on our Manitoba Provincial Teams. Amy is a passionate coach with a lot of experience who is looking to give back to the basketball community!"
Dan Becker, Technical Director and High Performance Coach Basketball Manitoba