Cougars’ Reid will feel right at home on the road
Guard grew up cheering for Huskies team Regina meets in Canada West title game
Faith Reid was once a faithful supporter of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s basketball team.
Growing up in Warman, near Saskatoon, she was a regular at Huskies home games — some of which also included the provincial-rival University of Regina Cougars.
“I was at so many of those games,” recalls Reid, a second-year guard with the Cougars. “Me and my group of friends, we idolized those girls. They were our role models.
“It’s really cool to be able to go back there and play where I really started to grow a love for basketball. It was really cool to watch those girls play and see what a good level you can get to. It seemed like a really cool goal for me. I always knew I wanted to play at that level when I watched them.”
Reid attained her goal of playing at the U Sports level — after moving 250 kilometres away from home.
She will return to a familiar setting Friday when the Cougars face the host Huskies in the Canada West championship game.
“It’s kind of coming full circle,” Reid says. “I watched the Cougars and the Huskies play for banners and in Final Fours in that gym when I was little, so it’s pretty cool to be one of the people who is on the court now.
“I think it’s going to be a great game. I’m super-excited to play in it. The atmosphere when we play each other is always so good. There’s always so many people there and it’s a really good game every time we play them.”
There was a time when Reid wouldn’t have regarded the Huskies as “them.” Along with her friends, she rooted for the U of S.
“Everyone did,” she says with a chuckle. “That was cool. We didn’t like the Cougars. That’s who they were playing against, right? So it’s kind of funny now for me to be playing on the team that I once didn’t cheer for, but it’s super-cool.”
Reid joined the Dave Taylor-coached Cougars in 2017, a few months after helping the Saskatoon Holy Cross Crusaders win the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association’s 5A girls basketball title.
But considering Reid’s background, how did she not end up with the Huskies?
“I don’t know,” she says with a chuckle.
“It’s just kind of the way it worked out. I love Dave and I love the program here. It was just a good fit for me. There’s no real reason, I suppose. It’s just the way things landed.”
Reid averaged 2.9 points per game as a U Sports rookie before embracing an expanded role this season. With the 2018-19 Cougars, she has averaged 8.4 points while seeing her playing time more than double (from 6.8 to 16.1 minutes per game).
She helped the Cougars sweep the visiting Huskies on the final weekend of regular-season play, but winning in Saskatoon will be a tougher proposition.
The Huskies have won all 14 of their home games, including four playoff contests, this season.
In the conference finals of 2016 and 2017, the Huskies defeated the visiting Cougars by 11-point margins. Regina enjoyed home-court advantage for the 2018 Canada West championship game and defeated Saskatchewan 75-55.
Regardless of Friday’s outcome, the Cougars and Huskies will both advance to the U Sports Final 8 national championship tournament, to be held March 7-10 at Ryerson University in Toronto.
Both teams have become fixtures at the nationals and in the conference final, which is a testament to the calibre of basketball in a province with a small population base.
“It’s obviously something I think both programs are really proud of,” Reid says. “It’s a good rivalry for women’s basketball. We go into the games so full of fire and, obviously, we both want to beat each other, but we keep things respectful.
“It’s a meaningful rivalry and I think that’s why it has stayed so alive. I think it inspires kids to keep playing basketball and trying to achieve higher levels at it. We end up getting some really good talent in both places.”
Friday’s game is set for 7 p.m., at the Physical Activity Complex.
The atmosphere when we play each other is always so good. There’s always so many people there and it’s a really good game every time we play them.