The top 50 basketball players in the province — aged 13 and 14 — took part in the first ever UA Next Combine Series at Montreal’s Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf on Saturday.
The one-day clinic featured nutritional workshops and skills training featuring the same circuit used during the annual NBA draft.
“You guys have been selected for a reason,” former Toronto Raptors’ Muggsy Bogues told the group of 25 girls and 25 boys, taking part in the workshop. “You have an opportunity, you have to take advantage of this.”
And take advantage of it they did.
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Eldrick Rivard, a 14-year-old point guard on Team Quebec’s U14 squad over the summer, said he got a few pointers.
“I learned some skills and some other movements for my shot,” he said. “Like my elbow has to be more in and my arc.”
Louella Allana, also learned a few tricks.
“I learned skills, dribbling and positions,” she said. “For example, if I am a point guard, what to do in certain types of situations, have to always look up, be patient, set my team and set the girls.”
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What brought Allana to camp is her love of basketball.
“I love the game and I want to learn more, and I want this to give me opportunities to go further in my career,” she said.
Bogues reminded the young teens, there’s a lot more to playing basketball than meets the eye.
“There are a lot of principles, like how to be a good sportsman, how to be a good teammate,” he said.
Those words were not lost on Allana, who is already thinking about how she can be a role model to others.
“I want to set an example for my brother and sister,” she said. “For them to also know that they can be also in my position. That they can also strive to learn more in basketball.”
Allana told Global News that meeting Bogues was that much more inspiring, considering he made it to the NBA, despite being a smaller player.
“It’s a big motivation for somebody my height,” she said. “He just proved to me that I have a really big chance and I have big potential to go further.”