ESTEVAN — The next step in Sadie Aspinall’s basketball journey is going to send her to Alberta.
Aspinall, a Grade 12 student at the Estevan Comprehensive School, has committed to play for the Alberta Collegiate Athletic Conference's (ACAC) Augustana College Vikings in Camrose, Alta., starting in the fall. She will be studying physical education.
Aspinall said she wanted to play for the Vikings thanks to their coach Marissa Lindquist.
“I think it was just an awesome opportunity,” she told SaskToday. “I already knew the head coach of the team from … the Golden Ticket, the club team I played for … so once I already heard she started coaching this team, I was excited to get the opportunity to play out there.”
Lindquist is relatively new to the Vikings, and Aspinall said she is looking forward to being part of the program.
Augustana’s location also appealed to Aspinall because it is close to Edmonton, and she is looking forward to a new experience. Aspinall said she has some family in Camrose who she looks forward to seeing.
Augustana is also a relatively small school in a small city.
Aspinall said she was talking with another college in Alberta, but it's further away from Estevan than Augustana and didn't do as well this past season.
She said she is grateful to the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs senior girls’ basketball program for their role in her development. She was picked for the team when she was in Grade 9 in 2022-23, allowing her to develop while playing at a high level.
“I just really love the sport, so it’s easy to put in a lot of work towards it.”
Prior to reaching ECS, she started playing in Grade 2 with the Estevan Student Basketball Association. She noted a number of the athletes played club basketball together and grew up together, and wound up playing four years of high school basketball at ECS.
The Elecs had seven Grade 12s this season, and they qualified for the Hoopla provincial high school basketball tournament in the 5A division for the first time in several years.
Aspinall said they set a goal in Grade 9 to make it to Hoopla at least once during their high school years, and they succeeded this year. While they went 0-2 at Hoopla, Aspinall said it was a great experience to be surrounded by competitive basketball.
“Just being there is a privilege to represent our rural league,” she said.
Aspinall believes she will need to work on being more aggressive defensively before the fall. The ACAC is a step up for intensity, she said. And she’ll have to be able to score when playing against the tough defenders.
