When Yvonne Ejim first experienced playing for Canada Basketball, she was only 13 years old. It was a cadet U16 camp, and Ejim remembers being the youngest player there.

“I was so scared and nervous the entire time. I felt like I was shaking in my boots,” Ejim recalls. After that experience, Canada Basketball continued to invite her back, and she never looked back, eventually making her way to the Senior Women’s National Team.

Ejim grew up in Calgary, Alberta, in a big family. Of her ten siblings, she has a special relationship with her older brother, Melvin. He is also a basketball player, playing professionally overseas and for the Canadian Senior Men’s National Team. “We have that [basketball] connection with each other, and it's one that will never fade away,” she said of their relationship.

Ejim has been surrounded by basketball since she was seven, but she’s a fan of every sport. She watches tennis, baseball, hockey, and whatever else she can find on TV. Her sports role model is Serena Williams. 

“I first started playing tennis, and she [Serena] was kind of like my idol, and she continued to be my idol while I was growing up. She's my ride-or-die. I stick with her,” Ejim said.

Serena’s influence shines through in Yvonne’s mindset as a player. She mentions mental prowess as a crucial skill in her development and how elite players can become elite. She’s proven herself, winning the 2024 West Coast Conference (WCC) Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards as a leader with the Gonzaga Bulldogs. 

Yvonne has led her college team well. This season, she averaged 20.0 points and 8.7 rebounds per game on 60.8 percent shooting, 12th in the NCAA. The Bulldogs went 30-3 during the regular season. Now, in the Sweet 16 of March Madness, the senior understands the significance of where she is. 

“I'd say the highlight of this year is the accumulation of the years before for women's basketball, all the players that have come, all the teams that have done amazing stuff, and all the March Madness buzzer-beaters that we used to have in those past years,” she said.

This knowledge and her international experience show Ejim’s growth as a leader with the Zags. Being around Natalie Achonwa, Kayla Alexander, Kia Nurse, and the other veterans on the Senior Women’s National Team (SWNT) taught her different forms of leadership. 

“They're all very different leaders, and I think that's very important because if we all have one type of leader, then our path to growth and success will definitely be different,” she said.

Her most recent SWNT appearance was in February at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament Hungary 2024, where she learned even more about the emotions that come with high-level basketball.

After going 1-2 in the tournament, Canada’s Olympic qualification hopes rested on Spain beating Hungary in the last game. When Spain went down 22 points in the first half, Yvonne and her teammates thought their Olympic hopes were over.

“By halftime, when they [Spain] were down by 22, we were like, yeah, we're leaving. I can't take this anymore. I don't want to be here. I just want to go back to my room. And there were a couple of others that stayed. I literally couldn't.”

In the second half, Spain made a miraculous run. First, it cut the deficit to nine, then seven, then two. By the end of the game, Spain had snuck away with a one-point win. Canada was in.

In the video above, you can see the reactions of Ejim and her teammates, Syla Swords and Shaina Pellington. “In the video where we watched on the big screen…we're just absolutely hands clenched, jaw clenched, everything tense. I was just literally shaking. I was like, oh my God, I don't know what's going to happen,” she said.

As soon as Canada was in, Ejim felt a burst of happiness. “That moment is one I'll remember forever,” she said.

Her experience in Hungary was the latest of her travels with the national team, and Ejim is ready for more. As a young rookie just starting with Canada Basketball, she dreamed of being an Olympian.

After being invited to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament and participating in the moment, Ejim now sees this as a very attainable goal for herself. She describes the experience as “joyful” and a “blessing,” saying that it “warmed her basketball self.”

Ejim still has a fifth year of college eligibility and will return to play for Gonzaga in her final season. She will continue to grow as a leader and gain more international experience with Canada, hoping to get on the podium this summer.

If she could describe herself in one word, Yvonne would say she is “crazy.” Crazy, like locked in, crazy, like dialled in. "You know how people use the word crazy to describe literally anything?” she said.

“I feel like that would be a little embodiment of all the different things that I do. And people just say, wow, she's crazy,” she laughed.

Ejim always smiles and wears the red and white with pride. When she talks about her experiences, you can feel the energy radiating. 

Ejim is growing into a player that others will look up to as a staple of Canadian basketball. “I'd like to leave kind of this sense or this image of a player that you can have grace on yourself, and you can still be amazing,” she said.

“You don't have to always peak and get to the ceiling and just keep breaking and breaking and breaking. Some days, you can have grace in yourself, and you can still be at that ceiling. You can still be an amazing player. And I think that's very important, not only for basketball but for athletes in general. Just understanding that you're more than your sport and you're more than a title or a label or what the media says or what the underlying pressure is. You can just be the basketball player you are.”

Yvonne Ejim continues to represent Canada and take her skills to a higher level.