High school star follows family legacy by choosing SFU
By recruiting Emma Kramer, SFU Clan coach Bruce Langford has landed an athletic shooting guard and someone with whom he can discuss program history.
The 5-10 Kramer, who has been key in Surrey’s Sullivan Heights Stars ending up one of the first qualifiers for the Triple-A girls’ provincial basketball championship that tips off Feb. 28 at the Langley Events Centre, has SFU clan, so to speak.
Mom Lani Kramer (nee Kalutycz) was a guard with SFU during the late 1980s glory days of the NAIA that included the likes of Michelle Hendry and Andrea Schnider. After playing in Europe, she returned to SFU to work as an assistant coach to Langford for a time.
As well, her aunt Nikki Johnson was one of the best players to ever pull on an SFU jersey.
Kramer also had assorted Clan players babysit her while growing up, most notably Teresa Kleindienst and Devon Campbell.
That’s a good chunk of the SFU all-time story right there, in four sentences. Come next fall, Langford will have help if he wants to wax on to his current charges about the good old days atop Burnaby Mountain.
“Bruce has been around me my whole life,” explained Kramer, 18. “Does that make it harder or easier? I don’t know. It’s certainly not difficult for me to talk to him. It’s definitely different than someone who will come in and won’t be so acquainted with him.
“SFU was the natural place to go for me, just because it has always been a part of my life. I was going up there as a baby, when my mom had to go to practices.
“I was talking a bit to another university. As soon as SFU called, that stopped.”
Sullivan Heights was slated to meet the Abbotsford Panthers in a Fraser Valley zone semifinal Friday night in Abbotsford. The winner then takes on either the Walnut Grove Gators of Langley or South Surrey’s Semiahmoo Totems in the Saturday afternoon finale in Abbotsford.
The top four teams in the Fraser Valley are all assured a spot in the provincials.
Sullivan Heights has a limited sports history, but Lani figured her squad had a chance at the provincials this season because it’s comprised of “a group of very hard-working girls. They play hard all the time and that always gives us a chance.”
That includes Emma as well as Lani’s Grade 10 daughter Sophia, who lines up at point guard for Sullivan Heights.
“She’s fun to play with,” Emma said of her sister. “She’s athletic and she works hard. She’s only in Grade 10, too, so she’s only going to get better.”