Nurse headed for Canadian training camp

Four years ago Kia Nurse opened more than a few eyes as the youngest member of Canada’s women’s national team led her country to the 2015 FIBA Americas Women’s Championship.

Coming off a 33-point masterpiece in an upset of the Breanna Stewart-led U.S. team in the 2015 Pan Am Games Nurse netted 20 points in the final FIBA Americas game against Cuba as the Canadian national team celebrated another gold medal performance.

Nurse suddenly finds herself in the role of a veteran leader as Canada prepares to defend its title next month in Argentina.

Nurse, heading into her senior season at UConn, is one of three players with remaining NCAA eligibility among the 14 taking part in Canada’s training camp beginning Sunday in Edmonton which will serve as the final preparation before the team leaves for Argentina.

Two-time Olympians Lizanne Murphy, Tamara Tatham and Shona Thorburn announced their

retirement from the Canadian national team program. Fellow veteran Kim Gaucher is also not on the roster leaving Canada with a much younger roster than the group that won the title in the 2015 event. Nurse ranked seventh in the 2015 tournament with an average of 13 points per game and figures to have a significant role in this year’s event which runs from Aug 6-13 especially considering that 11 of the 14 players heading to the training camp are under the age of 25.

“We definitely have a changing of the guard in terms of leadership,” Nurse said. “Having myself, Miah-Marie Langlois, we still have Miranda Ayim so we are fortunate to have that leadership but kind of understanding that we have to take a new role and stepping up in that sense. What they brought to our team, the passion and energy, we are trying to keep that going on through the next generation. It obviously changes the dynamic of the team itself because the team can change based on what the new people are bringing in so hopefully we will be a force to be reckoned with in the next quad.”

Case in point, Canada didn’t even qualify for the FIBA U19 world championships from 1989-2001 and had never finished higher than eighth before finishing fourth in 2009 and fifth in 2011. Other junior national teams have also been enjoying success highlighted by Canada winning the FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women in 2015.

While the stars of some of Canada’s younger teams aren’t in the mix with this round of training since the FIBA Women’s U19 World Cup begins Saturday in Italy, Michigan State’s Shay Colley and Iowa State’s Bridget Carleton will be taking part in training camp.

“We definitely have been on the rise and our younger age groups have been doing a great job and everything Canada basketball has put in place,” Nurse said. “I came up in those ranks when I was really young so when they find somebody who they think has that chance, that ability to make a difference, that is for sure something we would love to have. Our talent pool is bigger than ever and I think that is big for us.”

Players report to training camp on Sunday with the camp running from Monday-Aug. 1 before the 12-member team heads to Argentina.

When the team returns after the end of the tournament, Nurse will need to had to Italy to join her UConn teammates on its European tour. Barring an early exit by Canada, Nurse will miss the first couple of exhibition games the Huskies will be playing. Regardless of how much time she spends on the court with her UConn teammates, she knows that trip to Italy will be invaluable as the Huskies set their sights on an unprecedented 12th NCAA Division I women’s basketball national title.