Versatile Soifer is going places

A successful life would seem to be a slam-dunk for Josh Soifer.

The cerebral Soifer, who is playing for the Saskatchewan boys team at the Canadian under-15 basketball championships, is the son of two university professors. He aspires to attend university on the strength of excellence in academics and/or athletics.

Upon reaching university, he hopes to study business, or math, or perhaps philosophy. And he will play chess — not to mention a mean saxophone — along the way.

A multi-faceted individual, the 14-year-old Soifer is focusing on basketball this week during the national under-15s at the University of Regina.

“It’s all such a great experience,” Soifer, who is pushing 6-foot-4, says of the event. “There are great coaches and so many great players. It’s exciting to get a chance to play and develop against such great competition.”

The competition will also get tougher in a few months’ time, when Soifer — who is entering Grade 10 — begins playing basketball at South Eugene High School.

He is to spend the next academic year in Eugene, Ore., while his parents are on sabbatical. Eldon Soifer is a philosophy professor at

There are great coaches and so many great players. It’s exciting to get a chance to play and develop against such great competition.

the U of R, where his wife (Lynn Loutzenhiser) is a professor of psychology.

“It’s obviously going to be a bit nerve-racking (moving away from Regina) and it will be hard to leave my friends for a year, but I’m excited for the opportunity,” says Josh Soifer, who is to return to Luther College High School for grades 11 and 12.

Soifer should be well-prepared for the transition, considering that he also spent his Grade 3 year away from his birthplace of Regina while his parents lived in Oxford, England.

Despite his young age, Soifer has already had an array of life experiences. “I’m lucky, definitely,” he says, smiling.