Carleton Ravens guard Stephanie Carr is three wins away from her first-ever national title but it wasn’t always certain she would reach this point.
The 5’8’’ Stittsville native is in her fifth year with the team, but her greatest challenge comes off the court.
The biomedical engineering student said balancing and school has been her biggest obstacle.
“In the summer when I don’t have school, things are going great,” Carr noted. “When school starts, it gets worse and worse.”
The struggles balancing engineering and basketball continued into her final year as well.
“It’s been pretty hard with that, to be honest, with my final year project and focusing on graduation so definitely ups and downs with that,” she noted.
Carr’s struggles got to a point where she was close to quitting the team—numerous times.
“There was many many times I wanted to quit and I had a lot of great people that wouldn’t let me,” she said. “There were times I was literally about to call [head coach Taffe Charles] and I’m just super glad obviously, so far, that I didn’t.”
Carr’s teammates all underlined a key theme for how she endured: resilience and determination.
“It takes a lot of character. It’s pretty impressive for her to be able to just keep coming back and good for her for sticking her out,” centre Heather Lindsay said. “Honestly, there were times where she could have quit and no one would have blamed her but she stuck it out so it’s pretty impressive.”
The two Ottawa-area natives came in together in the 2013-14 season and have played with each other since the eighth grade. Her presence has influenced the younger players too.
“I think she’s a really good leader,” rookie forward Emma Kiesekamp said. “She sets an example for us cause she always comes to practice even though she has so much class to do, so many assignments, [but] she’s always ready to practice.”
The praise from her teammates was universal, with rookies and veterans alike finding inspiration from Carr.
“She’s always pushing us,” fellow rookie Madison Reid added. “She never holds back even if she’s exhausted and she’ll like have no sleep the night before because she’s working on her homework.”
“She doesn’t back down from anything,” guard Jenjen Abella explained. “She sacrificed a lot for this team and she deserves to be recognized for all her hard work.”
For Carr, the ultimate recognition and goal would be a national title. It is particularly important given the adversity she’s faced both on and off the basketball court.
Carr recalled how last year’s Critelli Cup victory was her first taste of winning anything—ever. The goal of taking home a national title pushes her to finish the year and it motivates her even more.
“Anytime I have an 8:30 class, I have no problem getting up at six to shoot before it because I can see the finish line and I wouldn’t want to sleep in one day and that’s the reason that I missed that shot later,” she explained.
It’s a sentiment shared among teammates as well.
“Everyone has that [mentality]: it’s now or never, literally pretty much do or die,” Carr stated. “I can feel that urgency for sure.”
For her, the end of this season doesn’t mark just the end of her U Sports career, but her basketball playing career. She plans to pursue a path in engineering and called the end “a bittersweet feeling.”
Before she leaves the nest, there’s still one last thing: a national championship.
“It will just be the absolute perfect ending because the amount of times that I’ve thought about that when I’m struggling with school or having a hard time with practice, I always think back to how it will all be worth it,” she said.
For Carr, it’s also a matter of closure on her career for herself internally.
“Taffe always says, once you win, nothing [else] matters and he just wants to take us to that moment, and I think I need that,” she added. “Obviously, having [had] a great career, I’ll be happy but I won’t truly be happy unless we win.”
Photo by Meagan Casalino
