Hoop Dreams: 17-year-old basketball player from tiny First Nation earns full scholarship to U.S. college

Although 17-year-old Emily Mandamin is the first person from Iskatewizaagegan First Nation to earn a basketball scholarship, she is determined to make sure she isn’t the last from the tiny northwestern Ontario community of approximately 300 people.

Mandamin was courted by 10 schools across Canada and the United States, finally committing to Highland Community College in Freeport, Ill., because she felt it was the best place to pursue both her academic and athletic ambitions.

“It’s crazy what I have accomplished and sometimes I have to take a breath and step back,” she said. “My mind just boggles and my brain explodes when I think, ‘Wow! I really did that’.”

But Mandamin was not always a fan of the game that has changed her life

When her older sister started playing, Mandamin just kept saying “how much I hated basketball and how much I wasn’t going to start playing, and my Dad would always be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever’.”

Mandamin said she is very close to her father, who often takes her to ceremony and has instilled a sense of pride in, and understanding of, culture and tradition.

He knows his daughters well, because soon Mandamin came to appreciate the positive impact basketball was having on her sister’s life and decided she should give the game a try too.

Wanted to follow in big sister’s footsteps

“Always seeing her play sports and make all these connections and friends and stay out of trouble, I guess I just wanted to follow in her footsteps and do everything my big sister had done.”

Together, the girls would go to the outdoor court, with older teaching younger the finer points of passing, shooting and dribbling.

At five feet 10 inches, Mandamin has always been taller than her peers, which often left her feeling isolated. But she soon learned that her height was a definite advantage on the court, and her love of the game caught fire.

“It brought me a sense of meaning,” she said. “I felt like I was needed somewhere, and I really enjoyed that feeling.”

Emily Mandamin

The move to…

Source link : https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/hoop-dreams-17-old-basketball-120000307.html

Author : CBC

Publish date : 2020-08-20 12:00:00

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