A Red Deer sharpshooter is blazing a trail to a university basketball future in Prince George.
Taylor Blais, a five-foot-eight guard now in her Grade 12 at Hunting Hills High School, has signed with the UNBC Timberwolves women’s team for the 2021-22 season.
Due to the pandemic, the 17-year-old was not able to travel to the UNBC campus to audition her athletic talents. Conversations with T-wolves coaches Sergey Shchepotkin and Mark Johnson and virtual tour of the university and Northern Sport Centre helped make up her mind that this U Sports destination is where she wants to be for the next five seasons.
“I am so extremely excited by this opportunity. I have always strived to be the best, and the chance to play at the U SPORTS level is a reflection of all of my hard work paying off and it means so much to me,” Blais told UNBC sports information officer Rich Abney.
“I have been searching for a while for the perfect program that I feel I am meant to be a part of. After some back-and-forth emails and calls with (Shchepotkin and Johnson) I was left with a really good feeling about the Timberwolves. What stood out the most for me about UNBC was, first off, how amazing the facilities were for both athletics and academics. I did a couple virtual tours and I was amazed by everything I saw. After all that, I knew UNBC was for me.”
Blais, who plans to enroll in UNBC’s civil engineering program, is expected to develop into a strong long-range shooting threat. She averaged 23.5 points per game in her Grade 11 season and hit for 40 per cent of her three-point shots. The T-wolves were also impressed with her defensive tenacity and ability to convert turnover into points.
“I am a shooter. I have spent countless hours in the gym perfecting my shot,” said Blais, a two-time season MVP at Hunting Hills. “Fans can expect me to be putting up some threes. Also, I am a very competitive person, so my drive and level of compete really shows on the court.”
Shchepotkin poured through dozens of video clips of Blais in action in high school games in Alberta playing and is confident she will make a seamless transition to university basketball as the T-wolves strive for their fifth-straight Canada West Conference playoff appearance next year.
“In the recruiting process, two things stood out,” said Shchepotkin. “ Firstly, her ability to shoot the ball and create off the dribble, both of which she does at an elite level. Secondly, the work ethic and leadership she shows on and off the court. I look forward to watching her grow her game and become an impact player at the Canada West level.”
