A PowHer move on the way up
Elite women’s league passes on valuable life lessons by the bucketful
Jeremy Alleyne, basketball coach at Humber College and founder of the PowHer Elite women’s league, glances over at a player and nods: “That one is gonna have them lined up for her.”
Alleyne was referring to Shayeann Day-Wilson, who just turned 16 and is ESPN’s fifth-rated guard among North American high schoolers — that’s all of North America, Alleyne assures.
But, as the 40-plus players split up into four teams for league play — every Thursday in June — it’s apparent they are
all pretty accomplished at basketball.
“I heard about the league through Instagram and then I started talking to my cousin and other people, and they all said it’s a great league, you’ll get good experience there,” Day-Wilson said. “You are going to play against women who have been in the NCAA and overseas (in European pro leagues), so that’s only going to help me.”
The league is in its second year and has quickly become the goto circuit for top women’s players from Toronto and southern Ontario. There’s nothing glittery about it: They get together and go for it at Humber’s main gym, with the winningest team taking home a trophy along with prizes from sponsors for all of the competitors.
It has attracted the likes of Day-Wilson and16-year-old Latasha Latimore, who stars with Day-Wilson at Crestwood Preparatory College in North York and is ESPN’s 15th-rated forward. Latimore, who stands over six-foot-six, and Day-Wilson have everyone close to the local women’s game talking about the WBNA in their future.
Other players such as Jess Roque, a former Cleveland State star who now the fulltime assistant coach of the Ryerson Rams women’s team, come for the competition. So do some from U.S. Division I schools, and Canadian universities and colleges. They say there isn’t a league like it anywhere else in Canada at this time of the year.
Christina Buttenham, a former University of Iowa forward who is now with McMaster’s national-champion women’s team and is studying in the school’s nursing program, says the league reinforces and sharpens the lessons she’s learned along the way.
“Basketball has taught me a lot about myself,” Buttenham said. “Things like time management, going through school and basketball and sorting it all out, and then meeting the people I’ve met … and you get to meet some great people in this league, and it just helps that way with social skills and all kinds of things.”
For Latimore and Day-Wilson, basketball is already very serious at the age of 16. They both attend Crestwood, with coaches and managers looking at potential paths to U.S. scholarships and professional basketball. Alleyne’s month-long league is something of a warmup for the kind of top-end competition the two teens will be facing as their careers progress.
“Actually my manager-coach, he’s sees everything, so it’s like he doesn’t want me to play with girls my age. He wants me to get exposure, so that when I get to those places where there is top competition, I’ll be ready for it,” Latimore said.
Day-Wilson has been playing basketball half her life; she was a dancer before discovering basketball and realizing her love for the game.
Like Latimore, she’s ready to play against Division I-calibre talent, and the PowHer Elite league provides an opportunity to face that level of competition.
Through conversations with other women in the league, both teenagers have gained perspective on what it takes to handle the pressures of Division I — and even the pros.
“I’m humble. I try to be … and I know I still have a long way to go. But definitely, I’d like to make it to the WNBA or play overseas, but just be humble. Keep doing what I love and stay humble,” Day-Wilson said.
“When I get to those places where there is top competition, I’ll be ready for it.” LATASHA LATIMORE FORWARD, CRESTWOOD PREP