It's shaping up to be a summer to celebrate for Arinn Young. The Team Canada wheelchair basketball player from Legal will celebrate her 19th birthday in Beijing at the second annual U25 world championship before hooping it up at the Parapan American Games in Toronto.
It's shaping up to be a summer to celebrate for Arinn Young.
The Team Canada wheelchair basketball player from Legal will celebrate her 19th birthday in Beijing at the second annual U25 world championship before hooping it up at the Parapan American Games in Toronto.
“It's going to be honestly breathtaking,” Young told the Gazette in a phone interview Monday morning from Toronto, home of the Wheelchair Basketball Canada National Academy.
Young leaves today for a staging camp in Burnaby in preparation for the U25 worlds, where Canada will battle Australia, China, Germany, Great Britain and Japan. The tournament starts next week.
“I'm really pumped,” said the high school basketball product of the Morinville Lady Wolves who will make her U25 world debut. “All six teams are very, very strong. It's going to be a very hard tournament for us. It's going to be a grind and I'm really excited to be able to get pushed really, really hard by younger players like me.”
Canada finished fourth at the inaugural 2011 worlds in St. Catharines, Ont.
“Honestly, I think we're going to medal and that's what is very exciting about this new adventure for us,” Young said. “Our team hasn't really been together for that long. We're basically like sisters to each other already so I think it's going to be a really great tournament.”
The five-foot-eight Young had multiple operations on her knees before switching from standup to wheelchair basketball in 2011. She is classed as a 4.5 player with minimal disabilities and can walk normally.
“My role as a 4.5 is to attack the key and not let them shoot inside and hopefully they don't get a lot of outside shots.”
Young, Maude Jacques of Lac-Beauport, Que., Erica Gavel of Prince Albert, Sask. and Rosalie Lalonde of St.-Clet, Que. from the U25 squad will join the senior national team at the Aug. 7 to 15 Parapan American Games.
Young and Jacques, who competed at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, also won world championship gold with the senior team last year. They're among 10 returnees from worlds going to the Parapan American Games.
Canada is No. 1 in the world rankings and has to achieve a podium finish in Toronto to qualify for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
“I live in Toronto right now and how they're getting ready for the Parapan Ams is really, really exciting for me. There are commercials everywhere, you're in the commercials and when you're driving there are huge signs for the Parapan Ams. It's pretty neat.”
Young is the youngest player and the only one from Alberta on the senior national team roster.
“Lots of the veterans on the team took me in as their little younger sister and I'm really grateful for what they have been helping me with. They're big leaders on the team and they always help with the rookies and no matter what they always have your back so it's really great.”
Last year, Young moved to Toronto to study psychology at Centennial College as well as train at the Pan Am Sports Centre, home for the national academy.
“It's been the most training I've ever done in my life,” she said. “I honestly can say I'm a whole different player when it comes to a couple of years ago to now and the academy has done positive things for me. It's definitely helped my speed and my defence.”
Young's meteoric rise to Team Canada status started with a scrimmage with the Alberta Northern Lights. Two years later at nationals in Longueuil, Que., she led the Edmonton Inferno to the Canadian women's championship and was named a tournament all-star.
“That was a pretty big moment, especially because I had just started wheelchair basketball and it was my second big women's tournament and that's when I started to somewhat understand the game more,” said Young.
Her performance impressed the senior national team coach, Bill Johnson, and she was invited to attend the 2014 selection camp for worlds. She made the team as an injury replacement and averaged 4.7 points and 9:58 minutes in three games while grabbing nine of her 11 rebounds on defence as the understudy to 4.5 standout Janet McLachlan of Vancouver.
“Obviously worlds was a pretty big deal. Even just making the team was a really, really, really big accomplishment for me,” said the female MVP at the 2014 junior nationals with Team Alberta, who also represented her province at the 2015 Canada Winter Games “I put blood, sweat and tears into making that team. I was really motivated and I kind of let go of other things in my life and just focused on basketball.”
