Your future, our focus
William Desilien of Quebec does not plan to buy cowboy boots or a cowboy hat during his sophomore stay at Northwest College, but he can say “Howdy, partner” in French.
“Salute, partenaire,” he says.
Traveling through the Wyoming countryside with the Big Horn Mountains as a backdrop may be unfamiliar territory to Caitlin Clancy of Bundaberg, Australia, but when she sees an elk crossing sign beside the highway she can identify.
Back home the drive-at-your-own-risk posted warnings for automobile motorists driving on the other side of the road feature kangaroos and koala bears.
“They can be a pest in the road,” Clancy said.
These members of the Trapper basketball teams – as well as Christopher Boucher of Quebec, Dan Milota from the Czech Republic and Rose Sow from France – knew nothing about Park County before matriculating, but they speak the universal language of basketball.
“Many of these guys just want an opportunity,” said Trapper men’s coach Brian Erickson. “I don’t think they care where they go.”
That may be blunt, but correct.
Milota is not sure if he heard of Wyoming more than three months ago, but the starting power forward, whose height of 6-foot-7 may be the reason, joked, “Now I’m famous at school.”
More than ever since the men’s American Summer Olympic Dream Team of 1992 stormed to the gold medal in Barcelona, basketball has evolved into a multi-cultural sport where ruling the boards can mean more than proficiency in English.
Combine that phenomenon with the ever-growing influence of the Internet shrinking the world and it is now common to see players in the U.S. from nations or cities that many American basketball fans cannot locate on a map.
Because elsewhere in the world colleges don’t field sports teams, basketball nomads populate rosters at other junior colleges in Region IX, and at four-year NCAA schools around the country.
The most remarkable aspect of this basketball matching is that junior colleges have miniscule recruiting budgets, often only a few thousand dollars. Thus, a journey to Europe is out of the question for Erickson or Trapper women’s coach Janis Beal.
“But technology has changed everything,” said Erickson, the Trapper head coach for three years. “It’s so crazy.”
Erickson subscribes to scouting services that didn’t exist a few years ago and owns a smartphone. He recruits prospects by email and texts. To get a better feel for Mitola, he interviewed him via Skype.
The majority of rosters at Wyoming two-year colleges always will feature Wyoming kids, but the international integration of those teams is undoubtedly here to stay.
“No, I did not think I would ever play basketball in Wyoming,” said Boucher, who at 6-foot-10 possesses speed and athleticism.
In the opening game of last weekend’s First Bank of Wyoming Shootout, a four-team JC tournament, Boucher scored 17 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked 5 shots in a 96-71 victory over Bismarck State College.
Erickson smiled broadly when it was suggested Region IX opponents quickly will tire of Boucher.
Born in St. Lucia, in the Caribbean, before moving to Canada, where he played ice hockey, supplementing his childhood sports of field hockey and soccer, Boucher did not play basketball until he was 19. At age 21 the sophomore is a coveted Division I prospect. Wearing diamond earrings and speaking four languages (French, Creole, Jamaican Patois, and English) Boucher stands out beyond the court.
While seeming very much a man of the world, Boucher doesn’t mind Powell, population 6,500, after spending a disappointing year at New Mexico Institute. Studying, practicing ball and hanging in his dorm – out of the snow – Boucher said he’s content to live distraction-free.
So far the most unusual Wyoming distraction he has seen is deer in the street.
“They stopped traffic,” Boucher said.
Janis Beal, 31, is from Lovell and is Northwest College’s all-time leading scorer. She also played at Southern Utah and coached at two other schools. Her Northwest teammates of about a decade ago included no international players.
Beal, Erickson and coaches at other two-year schools are consumed by recruiting because the churn is so quick. Trolling constantly for new talent means attending Wyoming high school games, scrutinizing self-made video highlight tapes and listening to tips from coaching friends.
That is Beal’s preferred method and how she plucked the 5-10 Clancy from the free-agent market. A coaching friend in Division II had no scholarships available and tipped Beal.
“I like how athletic she is,” Beal said. “We want people who can run the floor.”
In recent years the Trappers suited up several players from Brazil and players from Denmark and Latvia. It’s on the players to follow Beal’s instructions.
“I just go about coaching as if they understand me,” Beal said.
A scholarship can be like a winning WyoLotto ticket. A full ride – covering tuition, room and board, books and other fees – is valued at $16,000 for two semesters.
Sophomore Dana Bjorhus of Thermopolis is not jealous about foreigners eating up roster space.
“I think it’s pretty cool they want to come over and play with us,” Bjorhus said. “The Brazilian players didn’t like the cold. They would always be the ones bundled up. With Caitlin, it’s kind of crazy to think about the kangaroos.”
Probably no more peculiar than Clancy’s flip side being home on the range where elk run wild.
Clancy, 19, is from a community of 71,000 people 240 miles north of Brisbane. Sometimes she needs translation from English to English.
To her “trackies” are sweat pants and a “jumper” is a jacket. To cope with last week’s sub-zero temperatures and snow Clancy, whose accent is reminiscent of Crocodile Dundee’s, bought boots and a new heavy coat.
“I still got shocked,” said Clancy, who scored 20 points in the Trapper’s 94-77 first-round Shootout victory over Bismarck State last week.
Sow, 18, a 6-foot center, is from a community a half-hour south of Paris. She approached Beal via email and her size sealed the deal more readily than her ability to say jump shot in French – “arête-tir.”
“My mom was a basketball player,” Sow said in French-accented English. “She always pushed me. They (Northwest coaches) asked me everything, what I do for fun.”
The list did not include hanging out in the cold.
The foreign players compartmentalize winter. They are on a mission to further their education and entice a four-year school to recruit them.
“I’m chasing a dream,” Desilien said.
Desilien and Boucher are a tandem, playing together in Quebec, New Mexico and now Wyoming. The 6-foot-3 Desilien, who scored 22 points in the Trappers’ win over Bismarck, also speaks four languages, the same repertoire as Boucher’s, subbing Spanish for Jamaican Patois.
If Desilien doesn’t carve out a career in basketball, maybe he can obtain employment at the United Nations.
Once, this nation of immigrants welcomed newcomers through Ellis Island. Now basketball brings these strangers to the strange land of Wyoming – even if they never do ride a horse.
(Lew Freedman can be reached at lew@codyenterprise.com.)