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Date Published: January 27, 2006


With Basketball Ontario Provincial team members such as Lisa Furchner, Katie Goggins and Amanda McDonald working their way through the high-school ranks in recent years, it was very easy to sometimes overlook another wave of talented female hardcourt athletes in the Sudbury area.

Among those who have shown the greatest improvement over their secondary school career is graduating Marymount Regals guard Ryan Faiella. The hard–working Grade 12 athlete first took to the court in Grade 3, suiting up within the Sudbury Youth Basketball ranks and enjoying six years of basketball pleasure.

But it certainly wasn’t the smoothest start for the teenager who now seems so at ease firing shot after shot to the hoop. “When I first started, I hated the game”, laughed Faiella recently. “The day when I finally scored my first basket, I was just so excited…I think it was at that moment that I finally decided I wanted to keep playing.”

Still, playing youth basketball with primarily boys her own age did not necessarily provide the boost in confidence that Faiella needed to feel comfortable on the court. That would come a few years later.

“I think the first year that I made the BDP (Bantam Development Program) team, with all the kids in Northern Ontario trying out, that’s when I first realized I might have some talent”, she explains. “That’s when I started practicing harder and working more to get better.”

With increased ease in her role on the court came the natural progression of talent that continues right through this, her final year of secondary school competition. Where she began the season relying primarily on driving to the basket and posting up in order to score points, the 2006-07 campaign saw the well-spoken teen add another component to her game.

“My shooting this year has improved tremendously”, Faiella states. She spent quite a bit of time last summer working with personal trainer Rick Kilganon, one of the smoothest-shooting guards the Sudbury area has ever produced back in his days with the Ecole Secondaire Hanmer Sabres.

Like most competitive athletes, the eldest of two basketball-playing daughters in the family admits that she must learn to control her temper on the court, avoiding the inevitable frustration that comes with competing at a high level and working on maintaining her focus.

While Faiella and the rest of her Marymount Regal teammates would have much preferred to play Division I ball this past season (student population size did not allow them to do so according to rules put in by the SDSSAA Girls basketball loop a few years back), the drop in the level of competition ultimately forced an adjustment in Faiella’s game.

“Because I’m a pretty decent foul shooter, I was picking up a lot of points from getting fouled when I drove to the basket. In wasn’t until we went up against better opponents in tournament play that I had to use my outside shooting more”, she acknowledges.

Sadly for the graduating student, this season will be her last within the competitive ranks. A back injury sustained last spring provides a nagging reminder that life outside of basketball must go on. “It took me all this time to finally decide that I can’t play anymore.”

Faiella closed out her high-school career by helping the Regals advance to OFSAA last November. While she hadn’t finalized her post-secondary plans when we chatted before Christmas, Faiella was looking at the possibility of enrolling in concurrent education either at Laurentian University or Brock University.
 



Ryan Faiella, Marymount Regals


“I think the first year that I made the BDP (Bantam Development Program) team, with all the kids in Northern Ontario trying out, that’s when I first realized I might have some talent... That’s when I started practicing harder and working more to get better.”
 

 




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Additional Athletes:
Ryan Faiella
Amanda McDonald
Kaitlin Sheridan
Mylaine Mageau
Sirena Jonik
Kristine Lalonde
Katie Goggins

 

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