Peek performance lands scholarship
Playing university basketball is a dream come true for Ally Peek.
The 17-year- old Niagara Falls resident’s hoops dreams started when she used to watch her two older sisters, Codie and Eryn, play.
“They would tell me that I was too little to play so I started with swimming and every weekend I was watching them play,” the Grade 12 student at A. N. Myer said. “I started shooting and then my dad (Steve) became a really big part of my basketball career and started coaching me in the driveway.
“I knew then that I wanted to pursue it.”
He mother Janine was also a big help and the family support had landed the 5- foot- 8 shooting guard a scholarship with the Mount Allison Mounties in Sackville, N.B.
“I am really looking forward to seeing the competition, getting away from home and meeting new people,” she said. “It’s a new place and a new province so everything will be new to me.”
Mount Allison appealed to her on a number of fronts.
“I researched it, and they are a top academic institution which is my main focus.”
She plans to study biology and the 85 percent- plus student hopes to one day to attend medical school.
“When I went there, I really like the area. It was gorgeous and I liked the campus and the whole environment. People came up and talked to me and they made me feel really welcome.”
Peek’s rise to become a scholarship basketball player wasn’t without a few speed bumps along the way. She almost quit the sport in Grade 8, but her passion was reignited after hooking up with Mihai Raducanu of No Limit Performance.
“She came to me in Grade 9, and she was a scared little kid,” Raducanu said. “She thought she would only need two workouts with me to fix a couple of things and that wasn’t the case. She hated it, but then she came for four or five workouts and she started loving it.” See
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OLA junior B: Point