Lancers get early jump on recruiting for 2018-19
Six-foot-two teen from Cambridge set to fill centre void on women’s hoops squad
Maddy Adams will happily become the centre of attention for the University of Windsor Lancers women’s basketball team.
The six-foot-two Adams is the first player to commit to the Lancers for the 2018-19 season and will join the program as captain Emily Prevost is set to graduate at the end of this season.
“I definitely want to play the five (centre),” Adams said. “It’s what I’ve always played. I want to get better at it and improve. I’m still learning every day in basketball. It’s so new and every practice or game there’s something new I can learn or try.”
Lancers head coach Chantal Vallee said it’s not easy in this day and age to find someone willing to take on the difficult role.
“A lot of the kids these days don’t want to play five (centre),” Vallee said. “They want to come in and shoot the ball. Part of her recruitment, she says she wants to play the five.”
The 17-year-old Adams is still relatively new to basketball. She played hockey for a decade, but turned to basketball when she got to Grade 9 at Jacob Hespeler high school in Cambridge.
“I didn’t have the best experience playing hockey and wanted to switch it up,” Adams said of the move to basketball. “It was, in a sense, missing friends than the actual games. I like being on a team. I knew I liked that from hockey and wanted to be part of a team. Basketball was a place I could learn and got good coaching and ended up liking the game.”
Vallee believes that her background in hockey will actually help Adams become a better basketball player.
“She’s used to being physical,” Vallee said. “She’s not just tall, but muscular and we always look to add more physicality. She’s willing and able to do the dirty work.”
A native of Drumbo, Adams also plays club basketball in the JUEL for the TriCounty Thunder and has helped the team to a pair of bronze medals in the provincial league.
Vallee said Adams reminds her a little of former Lancer Raelyn Prince, who was still fairly new to basketball when she joined the program.
“By (Prince’s) third year, she was phenomenal,” Vallee said of Prince. “I think it’s going to help (Adams) in the long run. She might be less experienced, but you tell her to rebound and go grab a ball and she’ll go rebound and get the ball.”
Adams, who will study sociology, said she visited several schools, but wanted to make her university commitment early.
“I wanted to commit early so I could fully decide where I could go and relax about that,” said Adams, who also plays volleyball and throws shot put in track and field. “I went to a bunch of schools and the visits were all good, but I got a good sense with Windsor.
“When I first saw Windsor, it wasn’t something I knew about. I knew about Chantal because my coach speaks highly of her from her building that program and her passion to win another championship.”
Vallee already has eight new faces on the roster this season, but believes Adams can be another important piece for the team’s future success.
“It’s a nice core,” Vallee said. “We have eight new, first-year players and it’s not like we’re going to graduate a lot. Maddy is coming into that core that we think we can win that next series of championships with.”