A career in college basketball has Alex Speers excited about the future.
The Athabasca resident and soon-to-be graduate of Edwin Parr Composite will attend Lakeland College in Lloydminster this fall, having been recruited to the women’s basketball team by its head coach, Chris King.
Years of honing her basketball skills, first at Rochester School and then at EPC, have served Speers well as she prepares for this next step in her life and career.
“Everyone got to play (in Rochester),” she said of her earliest days in the sport. “I wasn’t very good at it at first, but I kept working and got better and better.”
Hard work and dedication were important factors in Speers’ basketball improvement, but her height was another. As she got older, she got taller, and basketball is one sport where that counts for a lot.
“You can’t teach height,” she chuckled.
And height is one element of Speers’ game that caught King’s attention when he started looking for up and coming players.
“I see a ton of potential with her,” said the coach. “I like the way she goes after the ball, rebounds and defends. She’s just scratching the surface on her offensive potential. And she has a high upside with her height.”
That’s an assessment of her game with which Speers agrees.
“Defensively I’m pretty strong. On the offensive end, under the net I can be a threat.”
She should have no trouble finding a place for herself on the Lakeland team, according to the coach.
“We do have a lot of playing time coming in for freshmen. She has a ton of opportunity to come in and play minutes for us.”
With her skills on the court, Speers had more than one school looking at her, but in the end she felt Lakeland and Lloydminster was the best choice for her.
“It seems like a really welcoming group,” she said of her new teammates.
She’ll also be close enough to home that her friends and family can come out and cheer her on.
Her EPC coach, Wade Hicks, thinks they’ll have lots to cheer about as he believes Speers is ready for the next level.
“She’s going to see some dramatic improvement (in college ball),” he said.
That will be building on the improvement he has already noted in her game, especially in the last couple of years as she devoted herself even more to the sport. Speers herself says that her confidence in her game reached new heights near the end of her high school career, paving the way for her to reach the next level.
“It’s something I was good at, and I worked hard to get better at it,” she said. “I’m really proud of myself (for) getting to this point.”
It’s not a journey she made alone, as she gives Hicks lots of credit for teaching her the game and pushing her to reach her potential, as well as her friends, family and teammates for always supporting her.
“I’m thankful I have so many people in my life that helped me get to this point.”
