For 12 games this season, Maria Mongomo was the UNBC Timberwolves' best player.
The 20-year-old point guard was carving out a niche as one of the top rookies in the CIS Canada West Conference. She averaged 17.5 points per game (third in Canada West), was tied for sixth in steals (2.5 per game), and was 10th in the league in defensive rebounds (5.1 per game) while leading the T-wolves in virtually every individual category.
And now she's gone.
On Wednesday Mongomo boarded a plane and left Prince George for her home in Spain, all because of a technical foul-up in her paperwork that would have prevented her from finishing the winter semester.
"She initially came here with a visitor's visa, which allowed her to be in Canada for six months and attend school and while she was here we applied for a student visa and it was rejected," said UNBC athletics director Loralyn Murdoch.
"It's much harder to get your student visa once you're in Canada. She was able to stay in Canada until the end of March but she wouldn't be able to finish her academic semester so we thought it was best for her to withdraw from school and go back to Spain and apply for her student visa there. She will have no problem getting it there."
The good news is Mongomo plans to return to UNBC in May to continue her studies for the summer semester and is intent on playing four more seasons for the T-wolves. The bad news is her teammates will have to play their remaining six games this season without her, as they did last weekend when she was held out of the lineup for UNBC's two-game set against the UBC Okanagan Heat.
"I just want to study and play basketball but for some reason it's difficult to get that permit and I have to respect the laws here," said Mongomo Wednesday morning, before she left for the airport.
"I would like to play this year but I will have to wait until next year. I've been very happy here, it's gone beyond my expectations and I just want to thank my coach. But this is just the beginning. I will come back. I love my team and they know it and it's hard to leave. But it's just two months. I will come back for the summer semester."
Mongomo, whose home is in the city of La Palmas on the Canary Islands, 150 kilometres off the northwest coast of Africa, completed the English as Second Language program at UNBC. When she returns, she will begin an undergraduate program, majoring in psychology. She plans to keep practicing her basketball skills with her club team over the next couple months.
Mongomo was recruited to UNBC by head coach Sergey Shchepotkin, who had crossed paths with her while she was playing club basketball in her native Spain. She wanted to come to Canada and made contact with Shchepotkin, who had an opening in the starting lineup for a backcourt specialist. Averaging 31.3 minutes per game, Mongomo had filled that role admirably.
"She's very important, she's the leader of the team and she's a hard worker and she was one of the top players in the league in points and a leader in rebounds and assists, so she's (a) very big part of the team," said Shchepotkin, who learned of Mongomo's plight last week. "She's also a very good defender and it's really tough to lose her, but we are very positive that she is coming back soon and she's going to be ready for next season.
"She was really upset - she was crying, and all the girls were upset - but we couldn't do anything. It's very bad to lose here, but on the other hand we still have 10 players and now they have a better chance to show themselves in the court. All of them are working very hard and everybody can see the improvement."
Although the T-wolves have won just two of 14 games, there's no denying they have been playing well lately.
Two weeks ago in Abbotsford, led by Mongomo's 18 points and nine rebounds and a double-double from Hannah Pudlas (11 points, 14 rebounds), the T-wolves beat the Fraser Valley Cascades 63-47. Last Friday night at the Northern Sport Centre, they lost by only five, 57-52, to the powerful Heat. In Mongomo's absence, Shchepotkin is depending on Issy Bourque and Eleni Steriopoulou to pick up the slack.
Murdoch said the circumstances that led to Mongomo's unexpected return to Spain will be a lesson learned for the university as it deals with applications from future international students to ensure they have proper paperwork in place before they leave their home countries.
"We're learning as we go here with our international students," said Murdoch. "They shouldn't wait until they get here to get their visa, even though they have six months to do it while they're here. It's just not that easy. It's an immigration thing.
"She's a fantastic girl, basketball aside, she's going to come back in May and attend school and be with us for the next four years so this is just a small glitch in the process of growing up. She's just a wonderful person who happens to be a great basketball player and we have no concerns with her academically. She's a great teammate and we're really looking forward to her getting this sorted and coming back."
The UNBC women's and men's teams have byes this weekend and will return to the court Feb. 5 in Kamloops against Thompson Rivers.
