Victor Raso named 2024 St. Catharines Sportsperson of the Year
St. Catharines’ 2024 Sportsperson of the Year didn’t have the prestigious honour on his bucket list.
“It’s really cool,” said Victor Raso, the head coach/general manager of the Canadian Elite Basketball League champion Niagara River Lions. “I never in a million years had this award on my wish list of awards to achieve in my career and I was quite shocked because initially I was thinking I am from Hamilton. I had to think about it for awhile and the more I thought about it, the more of an honour it feels like. I do feel a little young to be winning an award like this.”
The 34-year-old Hamilton native knows he is accepting the award on behalf of the team’s players, coaching staff and management.
“I’m very happy for the River Lions because it means we are doing all the things we want to do. We are making an impact in the community and I am very proud and honoured to receive this,” he said.
The award is also motivation for Raso moving forward.
“I am still at a point in my career where we need to grow and I need to keep doing the job that we’ve done over the past little while to get into a position like this.”
The River Lions started as a franchise in the National Basketball League of Canada for three seasons before joining the Canadian Elite Basketball League in the summer of 2019. They have always enjoyed a strong presence in the community but in 2024 they seemed to gain an even bigger threshold in the sporting fabric of Niagara.
“It really felt like that this year and a part of that is our success and a part of that is our continuity of players. Our fans had players they could grasp on to. There was a change and maybe it was the tipping point. We have been there for so long and people now expect River Lions games in the summer and the experience that they get. They see the consistency and the word is out.”
Attendance was as good as it has ever been and the demand for player appearances in the community has never been greater.
“There has also been a willingness of the players to be at events in the community. And the guys on our team keep in touch with fans all year long and it’s really cool.”
After the River Lions won the CEBL crown, 350-400 fans showed up on very short notice to a celebration on St. Paul Street at a small, pop-up shop that the team rented for the day.
“It was like ‘Wow. We really are Niagara’s professional basketball team’ and the community embraced us,” Raso said. “I am just really excited to build off of that now.”
He has been the general manager and head coach of the Niagara River Lions for the team’s entire tenure in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. He was assistant coach for his father, Joe Raso, in the River Lions last season in the National Basketball League of Canada before assuming his current role.
Victor Raso has compiled a 67-33 CEBL regular season record 5-5 playoff record. The River Lions lost in the semifinals three times, the finals once and the quarter-finals once before finally getting over the hump in 2024.
“That was massive for us. We’ve been doing a good job at knocking at the door for years and we got the proverbial monkey off our back this year. It was awesome and a great feeling.”
A CEBL crown is a difficult championship to win, considering the league’s parity, its salary cap and the late arrivals and sometimes early departures of key players because of commitments to their overseas teams.
“We didn’t have Javon Blair who was our runner-up for Canadian of the Year, a First Team All-Canadian and a Second Team CEBL All-Star. We lost him to a contract overseas right before championship weekend,” Raso said. “Not only were we playing against the home team in Montreal and then Vancouver, which was loaded with talent, but we were under-manned,” he said. “We have been the favourites in the past and haven’t got it done and this year we weren’t necessarily that but we got it done. It felt great.”
For Raso, the defining moment was the team’s 94-91 quarter-final win at home over the Ottawa BlackJacks before a franchise record crowd of 4,004.
“That has been toughest part for us over the last few years is when we clinched first place in our conference every single year and we always have a long break at the end of an action-packed short season. It has been difficult for us to get into a rhythm after a break like that.”
The River Lions clinched first place after 18 games and then had to play Ottawa in a home-and-home series to end the regular season. After a seven-day break, Niagara faced Ottawa one final time in the quarter-finals.
“That was the scary one because of the time off and the lack of super-intense games that kind of prepare you for the big ones. We came back at the end and we won on a buzzer beater alley oop in front of the biggest crowd we’ve ever had at the Meridian Centre,” he said. “That kind of felt like we won the championship internally and the belief was in the group the rest of the way. It all built from that game and that moment will always stick out to me.”
After winning the championship, Raso took a step back from his CEBL duties and focused solely on his coaching duties with Ridley College’s boys prep basketball program. Work on this season began to ramp up late last fall.
“I had already expressed that I wanted a similar team back and November and December is when I start to let the guys know that I am going to be making them an offer. Those offers go out in January and February to the guys and we will start signing them back.”
He’s confident most of the players will be back to defend their CEBL crown.
Raso lives in Stoney Creek with his two-and-half-year-old son, Orlando, and his wife, Krizia Scattolon.
“She is the reason why I get to do all this because she is very supportive of my basketball career.”
The couple is expecting their second child in March.
“I started working at Meridian Credit Union on Martindale in 2016 and that is when I started coaching the River Lions. I’ve have been working her for the last eight to nine years and it kind of feels like any second home.”
The award will be presented Monday prior to the meeting of St. Catharines city council. Also being honoured is 2024 athlete of the year Steve Priolo.
