Irv Hanec dedicated his life to sport, teaching, coaching and people. After a very successful career as a player at St. John’s High School, the University of Manitoba Bisons and the St. Andrews Super Saints, he turned to coaching where, for 45 years, he enjoyed great success at many levels. He coached at Elmwood, St. John’s, Daniel McIntyre, College Jean Sauve and Dakota. In 2005, he led the Jean Sauve Olympians to the MHSAA Provincial ‘AAAA’ Championship. In addition, in 1978, he coached the St. Andrews Senior Men’s team on an international tour of Brazil. Irv also refereed for 18 years in the Winnipeg School Division. For three years, he served as the basketball convenor for junior and senior high leagues and was the MHSAA Volunteer of the Year in 1995.
He worked with the Beeball inner- city program, the North American Indigenous Games, the Pan
American Games, the Manitoba Summer Games, the Basketball Manitoba Board of Directors, the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame committee and the Western Canada Summer Games.
Furthermore, he presented at many coaching clinics and even traveled to Nunavut to help players prepare for the Arctic Games. He was the Basketball Manitoba Coach-of-the-Year in 2006
and the Mike Spack Award recipient in 1996. He was Executive Director of Basketball Manitoba in 2005-06.
