Carleton Ravens rookie Mallory Katz called the transition to university basketball tough but it isn’t the first time she’s made such a jump.
“The biggest difference is just the speed of play, the intensity, and the physicality,” Katz said. “It’s just on another level and then obviously, going from being one of the older players to being a rookie is a huge difference.”
The Glebe Collegiate alumni remembers being “really nervous” and surprised in her first official Carleton practice. She called her rookie year a tough but fun learning experience.
The 6’1 forward has been around basketball her whole life. “I started playing because I was tall and a lot of people told me I should play,” she said.
She remembers growing up in a big sports family with two older brothers. They would compete against each other constantly, fostering her competitiveness.
“They definitely influenced me a lot,” she said. “Being the younger sister, I always wanted to be better than them, I wanted to beat them.”
She finally did win in basketball at age eight against them – “the best feeling ever,” she called it.
“We used to always play 21 on the net on my street and this one time, I finally beat my brother and he got so mad, he punched me so hard in the back and then he never wanted to play me again,” she said. “That was pretty funny.”
She had to make a big transition heading into Glebe Collegiate given how big the school was.
“I had to get used to being in a huge school, having practises every day at 7 am, I was not used to that,” she said. “I think it prepared me to come to university.”
Katz learned a lot from coach Dave Malowski – also an assistant at Carleton.
“Dave and [Ravens head coach Taffe Charles] have very similar coaching styles and very similar principles like defensive principles and offensive principles too,” she said. “I think that’s where I first learned to actually think about basketball, actually see things.”
She learned offensive principles such as running a motion offence and defensive ones such as help defence. Katz said she wanted to play university basketball but no schools contacted her until she met with Charles the winter of her senior year.
“When Taffe first contacted me and started recruiting me, that was a huge moment,” she said. “’Wow, maybe I actually can do this’. It’s actually surreal at first because this is kind of what I always wanted.”
She had to choose between Carleton and the University of Toronto. Katz went with the school 1.8 km away from her high school.
At Carleton, she has learned to gain confidence over time.
“I just had problems with confidence as a player and I think it goes with my personality as being more of a reserved person,” she said.
She said she’s continuing to become more assertive and confident.
“In practice or in general, if you’re communicating, if you’re talking with your teammates, if you’re hustling then those will slowly translate into just being confident overall,” she said.
“Sometimes, you have to remind yourself and give yourself cues but slowly it will evolve overall to your overall personality.”
Katz scored her first Carleton points against the Nipissing University Lakers on a layup on Jan.12. She was fouled and hit the ensuing free throw as well. “It was exciting,” she said. She scored her first home points, coincidentally, against U of T on Jan. 25.
“Mallory’s a really quiet kid and a really unassuming kid,” Charles said. “She likes basketball, I know that. She watches basketball, which is great.”
Katz said she’s a huge Raptors and Kobe Bryant fan.
“It’s interesting watching players because you’re learning little things that they do. Not only moves but some things I love to read about is stories about Kobe Bryant and his work ethic,” she said. “It’s really inspiring what a level people can get to. It’s something I try and think about a lot.”
She said she tries to focus on personal goals every day in practice and hopes to pursue a post-graduate degree one day.
“It’s just funny to look back at where I was and even then, I was trying to get better at everything,” she said.
“It’s pretty serendipitous,” she added. “It’s just pretty enjoyable.”
Photo by Tim Austen
