For professional basketball player Madison Landry, being paid to play a game she loves halfway around the world in Luxembourg went well beyond the dreams she had as a kid growing up in Prince George.
She was earning a paycheque, living in a furnished apartment the team paid for, and driving an insured car that was hers to use free of charge. Gas and groceries were her only expenses, with plenty of time off to travel around and see parts of Europe she’d never seen before.
Landry liked her teammates, got along well with her coaches and staff, and was doing well playing for AB Contern, a First Division team in Luxembourg’s 10-team Total women’s league.
But something was missing for the 23-year-old Duchess Park Secondary School grad, who went on to a brilliant career with the UNBC Timberwolves. That something was her Prince George family.
The pandemic complicated international travel, which kept them from making the trip overseas to watch her play, and with no end in sight to the current health restrictions, that sense of longing for a familiar face was powerful enough to convince a homesick Landry to quit the team.
“I knew I was coming back for Christmas break, there were giving me two weeks off, and leading up to it, just everything with the pandemic and not having any family come to visit started to take a toll on me,” said Landry.
“So I just decided that it would be best for me, considering the growing concern with the new variant and everything with COVID, being in Prince George with family and friends was where I needed to be. It was a really difficult decision but ultimately I’m so happy to be home. I did four months over there and it was great at times but also some very hard times. Being away from family, it does get lonely over there. I did what was best for me and I’m really happy with the decision to come back.”
Landry played 12 games for AB Contern, posting a per-game average of 17.9 points, six rebounds, three assists and 1.2 steals. She shot 68-for-146 from the field (46.6 per cent), 10-for-34 from three-point range (29.4 per cent) and was good on 49 of 59 free throws (83.3 per cent). She averaged 36.7 minutes of playing time. Her season high-point game was on Nov. 19 in a loss to Etzella in which she put up 27 points.
There was an adjustment period for the six-foot Landry, who played a post position after playing throughout her high school and university career as a shooting guard/small forward. The game and the way it was called by the officials was much more physical than what she was used to and she did not get the opportunities to shoot foul shots like she did playing in Canada.
“The refs let a lot more go, and I had to change up my game a lot because half my points in U SPORTS were from the foul line,” she said. “When I was over there I was playing on the post, which was new to me, I hadn’t played the post since I was 13 - the team had some injures beginning of the season – and probably didn’t perform to my best potential being in a different position. But I really liked seeing how European basketball was.”
Each team are limited to just two professional players and because of that Landry and American Bridget Herlihy (Villanova University), who plays centre for Contern, were well-scouted by opponents and drew added attention on the court.
“That was interesting, you were kind of getting five defenders on you every time you got the ball, everybody was ready when you caught the ball,” said Landry. “It was more rugbyish.”
Contern ranked sixth or seventh in the Total women’s First Division league. All 10 cities or towns with women’s First Division club teams also have male teams that play in a 13-team league. Both Contern teams play in a home gym with a capacity smaller than that of the Northern Sport Centre and basketball is a popular sport.
“You can just tell that people cared if you won, people were really invested in it, which was really nice,” said Landry.
Luxembourg is a tiny country, covering just 2,886 square-kilometres. Bordered by Germany, France and Belgium, it’s just 82 kilometres long and 57 kilometres wide and Landry was able to explore those neighbouring countries on her days off and visited Malta while she was there. Contern, a town of about 4,500, is a 10-minute drive from the capital, Luxembourg City, home to about 125,000 people. The longest road game was 50 minutes away.
“I loved the county,” said Landry. My main takeaway from there is getting the opportunity through basketball to live in Europe for four months. That was just amazing. The country itself is so beautiful and there was so much to do and because it’s so small you can drive out of it in any direction in like half an hour.
“The people in that country were so awesome while I was there. The athletics director and staff and coach on the team were so nice and the girls were great. Honestly, it was a real good experience and I really liked being over there.”
Landry played for the Timberwolves from 2016-20 and helped UNBC reach previously uncharted territory as a playoff team in each of those years. She did not play in 2020-21, what would have been her final year of Canada West eligibility, when the season was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Her U SPORTS career spanned 110 games, 82 as a starter, and she averaged 14.5 points per game. Landry hit 554 of 1,311 field goal attempts (42.3 per cent), made 57 or 207 three-point tries and was found the range on 429 of 537 foul shots. With 1,166 career points, she’s third on UNBC’s all-time list and her 212 career assists in Canada West is tops among T-wolves. Her 19.8 point-per-game average in 2019-20 led to a Canada West all-star team selection.
The opportunity in Luxembourg with AB Contern, came as a result of Landry’s UNBC coach, Sergey Shchepotkin, putting her in touch with agent Yves LeJeune of LBM Agency, who found her a place to play. Shchepotkin, a native of Russia who played professionally, encouraged Landry to go to Europe, an option she had never considered.
“I would urge more people, if they are passionate about basketball, to look into it,” she said. “It kind of seems unattainable but really if that’s where your heart lies there are lots of opportunities over there.”
Two of Landry’s former UNBC teammates are playing pro. Vasiliki Louka is in Sweden playing for A3 Basket Umea. Maria Mongomo just transferred a few weeks ago from Spain to the same league in Luxembourg where Landry played. Mongomo has played four games for Sparta, one of the weaker teams in the Total league, and is averaging 23 points and 39.3 minutes of playing time per game.
Landry was a five-time Academic All-Canadian during her time at UNBC and graduated with a degree in health sciences, majoring in biomedical sciences. She’s considering medical school and plans to resume her studies next fall, likely a masters program in sports medicine. Although she has one year of U SPORTS eligibility left, she says it’s still early to decide if she’ll end up back with the T-wolves, where she could be playing with her sister Rebecca, now in her second season as a UNBC guard.
Madison has been practicing with the team as a defensive player and was on the bench last weekend when they traveled to Kelowna. Games between the UNBC women and the Fraser Valley Cascades planned for this weekend at the NSC were postponed with neither team able to dress the required minimum number of players due to COVID safety protocols.
The UNBC men are in action at the NSC Friday and Saturday against Fraser Valley starting at 6 p.m. both nights.
