Hildebrandt back with the Sea Bears

The name will be familiar to fans of the Winnipeg Sea Bears — and the game will be, too — but Simon Hildebrandt vowed they will see a much more confident player on the court this summer.

The 6-9 homegrown forward penned his name on his first professional contract on Thursday, inking his commitment to return to the Sea Bears and the Canadian Elite Basketball League for the first time since 2024.

On Friday, a bigger, older and wiser Hildebrandt fielded questions about returning home and how the last two years of playing NCAA Division 1 hoops have shaped him for the next step in his career.

“I feel like I’ve improved as a player these last two years, and I think coming back to the CEBL, with those two years of improvement under my belt, and just this new level of confidence now that I’m kind of progressing from a U Sports player to a standard player, (I’m) hoping I can come in more confident, my skills improved, and I’m hoping I’ll have an even better summer,” said Hildebrandt, who celebrated his 23rd birthday last week.

The product of Mennonite Brethren Collegiate spent the first two years of his university career with the Manitoba Bisons, where he was named the national Rookie of the Year and a second-team all-Canadian before being selected as the first U Sports draft pick in Sea Bears franchise history.

Hildebrandt went on to appear in 41 games across two seasons for the club, flashing his immense potential at many points and being named the CEBL’s U Sports Player of the Year (now Developmental Player of the Year) award in consecutive years, before his move to the NCAA waived his eligibility to play in the league as a student-athlete.

“Those first two years, I was just trying to be a sponge and soak in any valuable information I could get.”

He quickly became a beloved player during the franchise’s inaugural years. If Chad Posthumus was the king of hometown players, Hildebrandt was the prince.

Now, he feels prepared to take the next step.

“Those first two years, I was just trying to be a sponge and soak in any valuable information I could get,” he said.

“These last two years, I’ve had so many coaches with different little points here and there, and just learning how to stay confident through the course of a whole season. That was a big one — just have confidence in my abilities when things are going up, and things are going down.”

Hildebrandt’s chapter south of the border started under less-than-ideal circumstances as a nagging foot injury turned into a stress fracture in his left foot that delayed his NCAA debut at High Point (North Carolina), but that season ended with him helping the Panthers reach their first Division 1 men’s national championship tournament (popularly referred to as March Madness).

He then transferred to Washington State ahead of this season, where he averaged 14.5 minutes per game and converted on 37 per cent of his three-point attempts.

“As a little kid, my goal and dream was to play in the NCAA Tournament and to be an NCAA basketball player. It took me a different route to get there… but I made it. And then at High Point, getting to play in March Madness was a dream come true; that’s what I wanted to do when I was eight years old, sitting in class, and to fulfill that dream was just unbelievable,” said Hildebrandt, adding some of the other most memorable experiences of his college career came during his time with Washington State.

One thing Hildebrandt hasn’t lost is the ability to shoot from range. It’s something Sea Bears fans will remember well, and is expected to provide head coach Mike Raimbault with some flexibility on the floor.

Hildebrandt said he also believes he can provide more in the paint than in previous years. A more physical player today, he is playing anywhere from five to seven pounds heavier than he did in his first two seasons with the Sea Bears.

“I never really wanted to play anywhere else,” Hildebrandt said. “I’ve known Mike Raimbault since my U Sports years, playing against him all the time. When he got the job, he and I had a consistent dialogue throughout the fall, then when my season ended, I think there was mutual interest both ways, and we already had a pretty good relationship. So it was a pretty easy decision on both sides.”

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