Bio

Head Coaching Tenure 

12 seasons
Overall Record: 223-41 (.845)

Medals

2x CCAA National Champion ('16, '18)
2017 CCAA Bronze Medal

6x OCAA Provincial Champion ('15-'18, '22, '23)
2x OCAA Bronze Medal ('13, '20)

Coaching Accolades

2016 CCAA Coach of the Year
2016 OCAA Coach of the Year 
3x OCAA Div. Coach of the Year ('14, '16, '17)

CCAA Postseason

National Titles: 2 ('16, '18)
Record: 12-7 (.632)
Tournament Appearances: 6 ('15-'18, '22, '23)
Final Four Appearances: 4 ('15-'18)

OCAA Postseason

Provincial Titles: 6 ('15-'18, '22, '23)
Postseason Record: 30-9 (.769)
Postseason Appearances: 12 ('12-'23)
Final Four Appearances: 8 ('13, '15-'18, '20, '22, '23)

OCAA Regular Season

Record: 181-25 (.879)
Division Titles: 8 ('14-'18, '20, '22, '23)

About

It does not take long for a conversation about the highest levels of success in Ontario women’s basketball to turn to the name Sharma. In ten seasons at Humber, Ajay Sharma – a two-time national and six-time OCAA champion – has built a dynasty that no program in the OCAA can match.

On January 22, 2024, Coach Sharma officially announced his retirement from Humber basketball, cementing his legacy as the most decorated women's basketball coach in the history of the OCAA.

Coach Sharma was named the head coach of the women’s basketball program by athletic director Doug Fox on May 20, 2011, and immediately transformed the Hawks into an unmatched program of excellence.

The crown jewels of Sharma’s tenure at Humber are the two CCAA national championship banners that hang in the North Campus Gym. His two teams that climbed the CCAA mountaintop are the only OCAA women’s team sport to ever win a national title.

Two of the conference’s top streaks came during the Coach Sharma era, including a 45-game win streak that saw Humber win a national title and two OCAA gold medals. On November 29, 2017, the Hawks established another OCAA record, winning its 68th consecutive regular and postseason conference victory, breaking the mark established by Algonquin from 2011 to 2015. It would take nearly a year for the Hawks to lose again, eventually extending its unprecedented streak to 81 games.

The North Campus Gym has always been a formidable mountain for visiting teams to climb, but that has taken on new meaning during Sharma’s time in Etobicoke. Coach Sharma has accrued a 98-7 (.933) home record and orchestrated six undefeated seasons. The longest home winning streak in Humber's history lasted nearly a half-decade and occurred under the guidance of Coach Sharma, spanning 49 games from Feb. 1, 2014, to Jan. 20, 2019.

OCAA conference records fell by the handful during Humber’s unprecedented run, including three straight seasons of establishing new records for most points as a team. The Hawks also set new marks for points in a game (125), field goals in a game (55) and season (574), three-pointers in a season (184), and tied the OCAA record with four consecutive titles (2015-18).

Securing their second straight OCAA title, 2016 turned into a magical season for the Hawks. Coach Sharma was named the CCAA Coach of the Year, joining Hall of Famer Jim Henderson (1996, 2000) as the only Humber coach to receive the honour. At nationals, Humber rolled through the first two rounds in Windsor, earning a spot in the national title game for the first time in team history. Trailing Holland by seven with less than three minutes left in the game, Humber’s aggressive defence led to five straight points, cutting its deficit to two with eight seconds remaining. With time running out, Ceejay Nofuente drove into the lane, kicking out to Ruth Holland who drilled the three-pointer for the win. The Hawks recorded the first perfect season in OCAA history, finishing the year with a 24-0 record.

Sharma and his Hawks team of 2018 will forever be the darlings of OCAA women’s basketball lore. Humber averaged 95.0 points per game during the season, establishing four new league scoring records while dominating the conference to its third straight title. In the national quarter-finals against MSVU, a last-second jumper from Ceejay Nofuente kept Humber’s title hopes alive, as the Hawks squeezed past the Mystics, 71-69. 41 combined points from Nofuente and Aleena Domingo helped the Hawks win their second title in three years, defeating No. 2 Dawson in the finals, 68-61. Humber recorded its second perfect season in program history, concluding the year with a 26-0 record.

On November 26, 2022, Sharma and the Hawks won their seventh game to open the season, becoming the first head coach in program history to win 200 career games.

Sharma’s leadership and accomplishments have inspired numerous Humber players to strive for heights rarely seen in CCAA women’s basketball. Three-time CCAA Player of the Year Ceejay Nofuente thrived under his tutelage, becoming the first Humber player to record 1,000 career points. After she finished her career as the all-time leader in scoring, three-pointers made, steals, assists, and blocks, Nofuente went on to represent Canada with the senior national team before signing her first professional contract with SISU Basketball Klub in Gentofte, Denmark. Teammate Aleena Domingo, the only other player in program history to join Humber’s 1,000-point club, landed her first professional contract in Nov. 2019, signing a one-year deal with US Wittenheim Basket in north-eastern France. A year later, 2020 CCAA Academic All-Canadian Jahnae Gyles inked her first pro contract with the Nottingham Wildcats of the Women's British Basketball League (WBBL)

Prior to his hiring as head coach, Sharma joined the Humber men’s basketball team as an assistant coach in 2004, spending six seasons with the team, capturing four provincial titles under the guidance of Hall of Fame head coach Darrell Glenn.

In 2010, he joined the Ryerson University coaching staff for a season before he returned to Humber, changing the history of the Hawks women’s basketball program forever.

No stranger to the international stage, Coach Sharma made his debut as a guest coach on the Indian Basketball Federation men’s basketball team in 2005. As a head coach at the Junior International Tournament in Milan, Italy, Sharma’s teams have four top-four finishes, including a second-place finish in 2010.

In the summer of 2023, Sharma was named to Christa Eniojukan's coaching staff for Canada's U23 women's national team at GLOBALJAM.

A lifelong student of the game, no rock goes unturned in Coach Sharma’s pursuit of perfection. He recently began a series of online coaching sessions, with guest speakers of world-class leaders like Dwane Casey, Roy Rana, and Anson Dorrance, Sharma’s constant need to learn and evolve is continuously on display.