Canada’s top young basketball talent set for national age assessment camp in Toronto

Canada Basketball has announced a national age group assessment camp that will be held at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, for a group of athletes identified through the national identification process and who are eligible for the Cadette Women’s National Team (CWNT) and the Junior Women’s National Team (JWNT) programs. Arriving from coast to coast, 36 of the top age-eligible talent will be taking part in a national level training environment which includes on and off-court sessions and be assessed by national coaches. Both teams will be competing in FIBA sanctioned championship tournament this summer.

This assessment camp, combined with previously identified age-eligible athletes, will assist in determining the pool of athletes that will be chosen for the CWNT and JWNT programs.

 

The JWNT will compete this summer at the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women in Chile on July 21 – 31. The tournament will feature the best age-eligible players from 16 of the best nations across the world. Canada is assigned to Group A along with China, Egypt, and Italy.

Attending from the list of age-eligible athletes for the JWNT is Nirra Fields (Lachine, QC). Last summer, playing for the CWNT at the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women in France, Fields led the tournament in scoring with 22.4 points per game. This marked the first time a Canadian female has ever led a FIBA World Championship event in scoring. According to ESPNU, Fields is ranked the 7^th best guard and 16^th best overall prospect in the class of 2012, while attending Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Virginia).

Last summer, the JWNT qualified for the FIBA U19 World Championship by defeating Chile to claim bronze at the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A pair from Ottawa, Kellie Ring and Rashida Timbilla, are the two lone players from the bronze medal winning team that will be in attendance at this weekend’s age-assessment camp. Earlier this year, Ring chose to attend the University of Ottawa next fall; while Timbilla committed to the University of Massachusetts.

The group of 36 also includes seven members from last summer’s CWNT that competed at the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women in France, where they placed 11^th. This summer, they will all be eligible to be selected to Canada’s Junior team. This strong contingent of up and coming talent include Northwestern University bound, Karly Roser (Hamilton, ON) and Dakota White (Ajax, ON), who represented Canada at the FIBA 33 competition at the first ever Youth Olympic Games last summer in Singapore.

The Canadian women have qualified for the FIBA U19 World Championships on four previous occasions, the most recent being a fourth place finish in the 2009 event. Canada finished in ninth place in the 2005 and 2007.

The 2011 CWNT will be competing this summer at FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women in Mexico from June 13 – 18. The Cadette eligible invitees mostly consists of provincial all-stars including members from the British Columbia provincial team that won gold at the 17U National Championship and members of the Ontario provincial team that won the 15U National Championship last summer in Toronto. In total, there are 18 players invited to both camps, who participated at National Championships last summer.

The Cadette group is led by Emma Wolfram (Kamloops, BC), who was a First Team All-Star at 17U National Championships and the 15U National Championship tournament Most Valuable Player, Kia Nurse (Hamilton, ON). Other notable invitees include 15U National Championship First Team All-Stars Kolbie Orum (Maple Ridge, BC), Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau (Gatineau, QC) and Second Team All-Stars Aimee Wilson (Chestermere, AB), Anmol Mattu (Richmond, BC), and Hannah Jardine (St. John’s NL).

Both camps will run in conjunction with one another from April 22 – 24 at the Mississauga Campus of the University of Toronto.

Please find below the list of athletes and staff that will be present at the camp.

 

 2011 AGE GROUP ASSESSMENT CAMP STAFF


* Observation Guidelines for coaches and family:

Location: University of Toronto – Mississauga Campus

3359 Mississauga Rd N., Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6

GYM:  UTM Sports Gym A, B and C (All training sessions are located here)



Moving forward for CANADA BASKETBALL 2011 NATIONAL TEAMS AND COMPETITIONS: