TORONTO - Canada Basketball has announced a national age-group assessment camp that will be held at Humber College, North Campus, for a group of invited female athletes identified through the national identification process. The camp runs from December 18 – 22.  Arriving from coast to coast, 43 young female athletes have been invited to take part in the camp, which includes on and off-court sessions and will focus on teaching athletes how to train at a world class level.  

This assessment camp, combined with previous work done in identifying age-eligible athletes, as well as upcoming identification work throughout the winter and spring, will contribute to the assessment of the overall athlete pool and in determining those athletes to be chosen for each of the U16 and U19 women's summer national team program’s tryouts by invitation. Both U16 and U19 national teams will be competing in FIBA sanctioned championship tournaments this coming summer.

The coaches who will provide on-court leadership at the camp will include national team coaches Rich Chambers (Terry Fox Secondary School, Port Moody, B.C.), Carly Clarke (Ryerson University, Toronto, ON), Andre Desjardins (Louis Riel Secondary, Ottawa, ON), Fabian McKenzie (Cape Breton University, Cape Breton, NS), Andy Sparks (University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON) and Lisa Thomaidis (University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK).

“In talking with the coaches, we are all excited about the opportunity of working with such an outstanding group of young women,” said one of the national coaches, Rich Chambers. “I am also really looking forward to working with such a great group of CIS and National Team coaches.”

Chambers went on to say, “It is a great opportunity to continue to build on the skills these players have developed in their Centre for Performance programs, high schools and clubs so we have consistency across the younger age groups in our approach to the Canadian women’s game. ”

This summer, the U19 women’s national team will compete at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women in Lithuania on July 18 - 28. The tournament features teams from 16 countries in all FIBA zones with players born in 1994 or later.

Last summer in Puerto Rico, the junior (U18) women’s national team qualified for the FIBA U19 World Championship by finishing second in their division at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship. The Canadian team ended up finishing fourth in the tournament after losses to the U.S.A. in the semi-finals and Argentina in the bronze-medal game.

The 2013 U16 women’s national team will be competing this summer at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women at a date yet to be determined. During the 2012 summer, the Canadian U17 women’s national team won their first-ever medal at the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women. The team will be looking to qualify to the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship by finishing in the top-4 in the FIBA Americas tournament. Players in this tournament must be born 1997 or later.

WOMEN’S NATIONAL AGE-GROUP CAMP INVITEES

U19 INVITES (born 1994 or later):

U16 INVITES (born 1997 or later):

PRACTICE TIMES*

Location: Humber College, North Campus, Toronto, Ontario

On Court Times:

Wednesday, December 19
8:30am-1:00pm and 4:00-7:00pm

Thursday, December 20
9am-Noon and 4:00-7:00pm

Friday, December 21
8:30am-Noon and 4:00-7:00pm

*practice are open, but spectators must sit in the designated viewing section

‍