Paige Crozon is in absolute rapture, getting ready to play at the home of the Raptors.
The 16-year-old Humboldt Collegiate Institute (HCI) athlete is one of just 20 basketball players to have been chosen to play in the All-Canadian Classic. The Classic, which features the top high school prospects from across Canada, will be held at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on June 20.
Unofficially, Crozon could be the youngest player there, as most of those participating are at the end of their Grade 12 years. Crozon is still in Grade 11.
Players at the Classic will be divided into two teams of 10, with one team representing eastern Canada and the other representing the west. However, as the players themselves are chosen based solely on their abilities, the east-west division is only approximate.
The game will mark the beginning of a very busy summer for Crozon, who turns 17 on July 5. In addition to the Canadian Classic, she will be playing for Team Saskatchewan at basketball Nationals in Winnipeg from August 1-8. Prior to that, she will play with Team Sask at a couple of international tournaments, in Edmonton and Seattle. Add to that her participation in club basketball with the Junior Huskies, a team out of Saskatoon, and she is going to be very busy indeed. The Junior Huskies practise twice a week, and have attended two tournaments so far this spring, with another two coming up. The club season runs from April to early July.
"I'm really excited," Crozon said of her summer opportunities. "Especially after last year, because that really gave me a taste of international basketball and competing at that level."
Last weekend, Crozon was in Vancouver trying out for the national under-19 team, and again she was one of the youngest players there. Most of those trying out were either in grade 12 or in first-year university. If she were to be selected, she would go to the world basketball championships in Chile in July.
"It's intimidating, but I just have to go out there and show what I can do," she said of the tryouts. "I know I'm younger, and they have more years of experience and at a higher level."
This isn't her first taste of international experience, however. Last summer Crozon had an opportunity to go to Worlds with the under-17 national cadet team. Despite finishing 11th out of 12 teams there, she said the team performed quite well.
Making it to Worlds is an achievement in itself, she noted.
It certainly has been a year to remember for the 6'1" Crozon. During the high school season, she helped lead the Mohawks senior girls to their first-ever provincial 4A title.
"It was awesome," Crozon said. "It was just a great experience and a great feeling. Because we worked hard all season, and we overcame so much adversity as a team, like injuries and illnesses and people being away."
Kerri Archibald, who coaches the Mohawks alongside Kevn Grieman, said Crozon was an indispensable part of the team's success, and she will be that again next year as well. The Mohawks lose only two players to graduation this year.
"Obviously her skill level aids us, but it's her leadership and her dedication that makes everyone else rise up to that level," Archibald said of Crozon. "She plays basketball year-round, and has all these other teams she plays with. So her skill level is tough to match.
"She shoots every single morning of the entire year," she added. "She works out in the morning, she shoots, and she drives everyone else to excel. She was just a wonderful captain and leader for the team too, and motivated the other girls greatly. So just having that aspect of her, let alone how awesome she is at basketball, is huge."
"I think with the experience that I've had in the past couple of years, it's given me that ability to lead on a team like the Mohawks," Crozon herself noted, adding that she has to adjust her game somewhat when it comes to international play.
"In high school, I definitely have a size and strength advantage, which I don't have at the international level," she said. "I play more of a forward/post position in high school, but for the international level I'd be more of a guard because I'm so undersized. So that's been a real challenge, and something I've had to work on it past years. It's coming along, but it's still got a ways to go."
Moving to guard also means playing more defensive-minded basketball, as well as focusing on ball control and quarterbacking the offence.
As a dominant player at the high school level, Crozon relishes busting inside and taking the ball to the hoop. But she won't be able to do that so much against the taller, bigger international players.
"I'm going to work on my ball handling, and being able to shoot the pull-up jump shot," she noted. "When I play defenders that are taller than me, I will have to be able to stop and pull up, instead of driving to the hoop. Because (in international competition) there are girls who are 6'6", 6'7."
As for her level of fitness, that's never been a problem for Crozon.
"I think I work pretty hard on my conditioning and training," she said. "It's something that I really focus on."
What the future may hold for her basketball career, Crozon isn't yet sure.
She said she definitely intends to go to university after she graduates from HCI in 2012. She's considering majoring in physiotherapy, or possibly nutrition. Where she attends university, however, is still uncertain.
"I've had some offers, but I haven't made any decisions yet," she said.
