Sarah Mills: The magic of a good, old-fashioned letter
Could letters of old be the way to save Canada Post? In today's Mills Minute, Sarah Mills says there is something rather...
Prince Albert’s Gage Grassick has added another piece of hardware to her trophy cabinet.
Fresh off winning a national championship and MVP honours with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s basketball team last March, Grassick took the opportunity to prepare her senior season by playing in the 3×3 tournament of the Junior Pan Am Games in Paraguay.
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At the tournament, Grassick and three other players – including Regina’s Jade Belmore – helped lead Canada to a gold medal.
Grassick called the event a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“It was absolutely phenomenal. I was so proud to wear Canada across my chest and just represent this beautiful country with an amazing group of three other young female athletes who are absolutely exceptional,” she explained. “We had a great coach to help us guide us through this and end up winning. I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity.”
The road to the gold medal was anything but a traditional one for Grassick and her teammates.
She and two other members of the team competed in Chile together for two weeks to get ready for the tournament, but besides that game, Grassick said they barley played with each other.
“The whole team Pan Am team only got like two 30-minute practices together,” Grassick said.
“Mackenzie Smith is actually from Nova Scotia, and she played in the States. I was playing overseas in Greece,” Grassick said.
“Marah Dykstra is originally from British Columbia and playing at Michigan State. I think that was really special that we had a mix of different people and we all had just such cool, interesting stories that just made our team so special.”
Grassick has played 3×3 in the past, but never ventured out to compete on a big stage like the Pan Am Games.
With this being her fifth and final year with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, Grassick was asked if she could see herself competing in 3×3 in the future, as there could be a spot opening up on Paige Crozon’s team after Michelle Plouffe announced her retirement from competition.
Grassick admitted that getting a spot the team led by Crozon would be tough.
“What that national team have been able to do has been so inspiring for athletes like myself, because they really like grew the 3×3 game from the ground up,” Grassick explained.
“I definitely want to keep my feet in the water and just see how far we can take this 3×3 and how far this game can grow, because it is really special.”
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