Fergus resident Alicia Higgins is one of the members of the new elite basketball team, Guelph Prep Junior Gryphons.
The 13-year-old is the youngest of eight team members announced on Aug. 17 in Guelph. Three members are still to be revealed.
The team is part of the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association inaugural girls’ league after it introduced the boys’ league in 2015.
Karen Bremner, head coach and director of basketball operations for Guelph Prep, explained the “high performance program” is built into the curriculum at Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School.
“They all attend the same high school and their basketball is built into their academics,” she said.
The team will train at the University of Guelph in the new 24,000 square-foot facility that boasts 2,200 theatre seats.
“They had the facilities to support something like this, where we’re really trying to mirror a university program,” explained Bremner.
The program includes Sports nutrition, Sports psychology, academic counselling and lifestyle management, allowing the student players to earn credits.
“They have the potential to earn academic credits for their involvement in basketball, so they can participate in a co-op, an elite athlete co-op that exists at Bishop Mac, and so their basketball acts as their placement for that,” said Bremner.
She explained the program is different than any other high performance athlete or rep program because it is built into their academic life.
“One of the reasons that this program was developed was to try to influence the daily training environment for elite athletes across this province, give them their opportunity for exposure and get control of their schedule so they’re not burning out so quickly,” she said.
Team members range from Grade 9 to 12 and come from all over Ontario.
Bremner explained they are chosen to participate, rather than through tryouts.
“We’ve had talent identifiers, so to speak, out at every provincial championship all the way down to Grade 6 kids so that we can get eyes on them early and start to build a comprehensive evaluation on their game,” she said.
Bremner added that Higgins has been involved in the sport for a while.
“Alicia’s been involved with our Centre for Performance Pod in Guelph … we actually met when she came out to a skill session that team Ontario was running when she was, I believe, in Grade 6,” said Bremner.
Higgins said she has been playing basketball since she was seven because she liked playing with her friends.
She explained how she was chosen for the team.
“My coach, Karen, came up to us after practice and was telling us about the prep program and invited me to be on the team,” she said.
Bremner said Higgins has “a ton of physical potential, long legs, long arms.
“She’s going into Grade 9, there’s so much time for her to develop as a basketball player, and she’s a pretty good one right now. I think there’s a lot of room for growth,” she said.
Higgins said she is excited to start school next week and get out on the court.
“I’m just really, really excited to be a part of this team and experience these things and play basketball all year round,” she said.
Higgins was playing on a boys’ team before. “It made me really shy because I never really talked to them I was just doing what I was doing,” she explained.
But she has already clicked with her new team.
“Everyone was so nice and I just feel like we are connected already and we are going to do well this year.”
The first game of the season tips off in November.
