Helping an athlete play in the NCAA, as I have now a few times, required a change in perspective and Serena gave me that. I spent my early coaching life building programs passionately and looking for solutions to domestic issues with events and teams. I was very caught up in coaching theory, never following what others did but always reading and learning so I could push training along scientific lines. I've written about that a bit but it is not the focus here.
While I was carving a path in terms of coaching patterns and event structure I was looking at building for teams, clubs and provinces. Serena helped me see that at the end of her highschool cycle she really had no credible competition options in Canada. She could move to Montreal and train with the national team but that was not interesting to her. The barriers to living in Montreal at that age with an unsure focus toward the future were not going to work. Staying here in Winnipeg with only a couple of university aged athletes was also not going to give her what she needed to keep pushing forward with training.
So, the solution was NCAA play on a scholarship and that is why I supported it. Now, of course, we have a few others that followed her footsteps and they are better for it. Better because there is no domestic equivalent right now and for them to sit here waiting for one to evolve would be a waste of their skill. One day we may have national playing options for this age that rival the NCAA but not yet. I will be happy to support any initiatives in that direction and applaud George Gross for his current efforts with the University of Toronto programs.
This winter, though, I will be sitting by the computer on the weekends watching the twitter updates as Breda leads her Cal team in scoring, Shae leads her Indiana team in steals and assists and Serena anchors a great Hawaii team in the nets. Hopefully a few 14-16 year old girls here will understand the confidence and focus those women are displaying for them.
I see this as a great opportunity for a few but doesn't help development in Canada. More and more women go south which leaves fewer to grow the sport in Canada. This is an age where we see many drop out of the sport due to lack of programs and competition. It's even worse with the men. There are very few NCAA teams, almost no scholarships and no CSL or equivalent as a national initiative. I find it odd that the sport looses most of it's players before they hit their prime.
ReplyDeleteI'll post about how the NCAA is a possible developmental tool for the womens National Team later. But, the migration south began with the demise of domestic league play. We can have both and an OUA stream too. It just needs a bit more vision and a bit more trust.
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