Evolution is the succession of generations. And Canada’s senior womens national team is evolving in front of our eyes.
With a mix of veterans like Shona Thorburn and Kim Gaucher, entering-their-prime stars like the WNBA’s Natalie Achonwa, and NCAA collegiate stars like UConn’s Kia Nurse and UCLA guard Nirra Fields, Canada is balancing winning with developing talent like never before.
The squad is currently preparing for the FIBA Americas Women’s Championship, an Olympic qualifying tournament being held this August at Edmonton’s Saville Community Sports Centre, where they’ve been training since May 10th. On Thursday, the 10th-ranked Canadians kick off an exhibition tour in Spain and France that includes contests versus Great Britain, no.4 ranked France, and world no.3 Spain.
Given the growth of basketball in this country, and the subsequent talent boom this year’s squad could be one of the strongest Canada has ever produced.
“When I got up and looked around the room on the first day and saw the quality of athletes that we have, I was impressed, “ says head coach Lisa Thomaidis. “We haven’t had the depth of talent like this in our program in forever.”
Shay Colley, a 19-year-old guard out of Brampton, Ontario, is one of few junior players invited to the camp. In a sense, Colley is the current embodiment of where the program is geared to go in the very near future.
“I feel honoured to be a part of this experience,” says Colley. “It goes to show that generations are getting better and the younger players are putting in the work, knowing that the goal is to reach the gold medal game at the Olympics,” Colley said.
The 5-foot-8 point guard will be suiting up at University of South Carolina this fall after five seasons at Sir Edmond Campion Secondary, located approximately 40 minutes outside Toronto.
The transition towards a younger crop of athletes for the national team is ushered in under the watchful eye of its head coach, Lisa Thomaidis, who also serves as leader on the bench at the University of Saskatchewan.
While Thomaidis acknowledges that spots are limited, she knows the younger crop are itching for their seat at the table.
“For us it’s a matter of always having to prepare for the future. We just have to protect the program especially considering that were going to have some retirements in the coming years,” she added.
Thomaidis, who was named head coach of the team in 2013 after serving 11 years as an assistant with the program, has noticed Colley’s potential throughout camp.
“Shay is a tremendous talent and she is definitely going to be a part of the future of this program. So the more that we can give her experience at this level before having her be a really key-player is imperative for the team, and for the future,” the coach said.
A member of Basketball Canada’s 2014 women’s U18/U19 and women’s 3×3 teams, Colley is one of the youngest players invited to camp. If she makes the cut she’ll become the second youngest on the roster, next to point guard Nurse, the talented guard who helped lead the UConn Huskies to a title this past March and has been involved with Canada’s senior national program since she was a high-schooler.
Colley happily embraces the task of soaking in as much as possible from her first go-round with the senior squad.
She gets a chance to measure her skills against contemporaries on the team, similar in position, if not so much in age.
“I’ve been learning a lot from the older players,” she says. “They’ve taught me to be attentive to both ends of the floor, even when I’m sitting on the sidelines. Getting a chance to speak with and learn from players like Kim [Gaucher] and Shona [Thornburn] is a huge honour,” Colley adds.
Gaucher, a 31-year-old guard, is one of the team’s longest-tenured players. In her 14th year with the program, the Mission, B.C. native occupies a larger role than she’s ever had: player and mentor.
“A big part of my role is to help guide the younger players to learn the international game, says Gaucher. “I have been in most of their situations before, so just trying to help them realize the opportunity that they have.”
Gaucher, like many of Canada’s veterans, remembers a time where there were different expectation within the program.
“One of the biggest changes from when I first came in was that we didn’t have a winning mentality. I played on a lot of junior teams that never qualified for the World Championships; I played on the senior teams that didn’t qualify for two Olympics in a row. Now we come in and we expect to qualify,” says Gaucher. “It’s really cool to see the transition and it’s definitely made me proud to have hung on for as long as I have, and be a part of it. There is definitely a very bright future ahead.”
Thomaidis is thrilled to help bridge where the program has been to where it is heading, and points to the budding relationship between the veteran Gaucher and upstart Colley as an example.
“One of Kim’s biggest assets is how she makes other people better. She has been an absolute role model for these younger players and she is the epitome of consistency, dedication and commitment to the program,” Thomaidis says. “She’s not the best athlete out there, but her basketball IQ and understanding of the game in order to maximize her potential are things that you can’t teach.”
It’s why, Thomaidis says, Gaucher has been the face of a program all these years.
As the team heads to the conclusion of it’s training camp, whether Colley makes the final cut or not is still in the cards. Yet she, like Canada’s other young taltent, is being moulded in the program’s vision, so deeply that she already knows how she’ll mentor the generation that follows her.
“I can teach the future what the old-heads taught me: just to play hard and play with passion, because we’re all here for a reason and that is to win at the Olympics.”