Stars of the Games:
Kia Nurse the new face of women’s hoops in Canada
Big pressure, big event, big game.
And Kia Nurse has cemented her reputation as the future face of Canadian women’s basketball.
The teenaged guard, showing a measure of poise far beyond her years, exploded for 33 points against the United States in the gold medal game in the Pan Am Games, announcing her presence on the national sporting consciousness with authority.
The Hamilton native and University of Connecticut freshman was dominant against a good U.S. team, as Canada won its first senior program basketball gold medal ever.
“The biggest games, and she’s the one rising to the occasion,” coach Lisa Thomaidis said of the 19-yearold. “There are very few players who can do that and do that at the level she did (in the gold medal game).”
Nurse was part of an excellent team that was fifth at the world championships last summer and seems poised to be a national team stalwart for years.
She and fellow guards Miah-Marie Langlois and Nirra Fields have infused the program with a level of backcourt speed and quickness it had lacked.
The experience the six-foot-two Nurse got can only help at the coming Olympic qualification tournament in Edmonton.
“Every win you can get against quality opponents certainly builds confidence,” said Thomaidis.
“Every time you get a chance to play against different personnel, different systems, teams that press and trap, it’s great for those young guards to get those experience.”
It would seem Nurse is born to athletic excellence. Her brother Darnell was a first-round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers, her dad Richard was a CFL wide receiver, her mother Kathy was a university basketball player. It helped carve Kia’s personality. “Probably just from the competitive family that I have, just being raised in such a competitive way and getting to watch my brother do all those crazy things for himself and you know you get to try and one-up him . . . it’s a good feeling,” she said after the gold medal win.