Life would be sweet if Jennifer Clyne could end her basketball career with the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves the same as she began five years ago.
"In my first year we won provincials and I hope my last year ends like that as well," says Clyne, recalling the thrill of winning the B.C. Colleges' Athletic Association (now PACWEST) during the 2007-2008 season.
But after a sixth-place finish that season at the Canadian Colleges' Athletic Association national championship in Truro, NS, Clyne and her fellow graduating teammates, Erin Beckett and Maria Neumann, would like to nose their way into the medals at the nationals in Lethbridge from March 15 to 17 if they earn the PACWEST berth.
After failing to qualify for the 2008-2009 provincial championship, the Timberwolves posted a 17-1 record the following season, but fell in the provincial semifinal.
In her final season, Clyne has inched her way onto the top scorer's CCAA list with 104 points in only six games, which places her ninth in the country behind women who have played at least two more games.
"My mindset going into games is 'I want to play good defence, fast break and rebound,'" says the 22 year old. "As long as I do that, I find everything else falls into place."
The only statistic Clyne cares about is the one which says the T-wolves are 8-0 and are the third-ranked CCAA team in Canada behind the Dawson College Blues (Quebec) and the Grant MacEwan Griffins (Edmonton).
The graduate of D.P. Todd Secondary in Prince George says she started the sport as a Trojan.
"I started in Grade 7 with the coach I had all through high school and he worked with us for all six years," she says.
Clyne will play her final university games in her hometown Feb. 3 and 4 during the T-wolves final home stand of the season, as the team wraps up with back-to-back road weekends before the
provincial championship at Capilano University in North
Vancouver from March 1 to 3.
"I'll definitely be in tears [Feb. 4]," says the finance student adding she'll "definitely" play women's league basketball in the future.
When Loralyn Murdoch, head coach of the T-wolves, first spotted Clyne she knew the young girl was a future recruit.
"She's a nice size," says Murdoch about the five-foot-11 athlete. "I've seen her ever since she was a little girl growing up and playing basketball and I always thought she had the potential to move to the next level."
Murdoch says seeing Clyne shine offensively is a nice bonus for the team.
"Over the years, scoring has become second nature [for her]," says Murdoch. "We don't rely on her to score and she doesn't do it naturally, but on any given night if she does it great, but it's not something she feels any pressure to do."
Assigning Clyne the captaincy at the start of the season was an easy decision for Murdoch, since she's always shown leadership potential within the team environment, UNBC and the community.
"She's the type of person you want as a role model in the community and as a representative of the UNBC Timberwolves," says Murdoch. "She's always talking about different ideas and opportunities that we could do out in the community."
Murdoch says it would be a nice to see Clyne and Neumann end their university careers almost the same way they started them, except with a better finish at nationals.
"They came in with a very good team and they're going out with a very good team," says Murdoch. "We want to play to the best of our abilities and, hopefully, at the end of the day we're going to see some success."
