Marlee Ball waited a year to wear the Ravens uniform. When she finally did, it was “overwhelming.”
The Waterdown forward, who transferred to Carleton from Algoma last year but red-shirted, made her Ravens debut against the Drury University Panthers on Aug. 11. She scored a team-high 16 points in 28 minutes but was visibly tired afterwards.
“Being in Carleton’s system is definitely a lot different than what I’m used to and being in a game and doing it,” Ball said.
Ravens welcome rookies
Ball’s not alone. She was one of three players to make her Ravens debut in their two-game series against Drury—rookie guards Kali Pocrnic and Tatyanna Burke being the others.
They all had to play heavy minutes out of necessity. The Ravens were down to seven players due to injuries and players not being in Ottawa.
“You can see fatigue as one thing or you can see fatigue as a challenge,” new interim head coach Brian Cheng noted. “We see fatigue as an opportunity to find out who we are as people and who we are as a team.”
Cheng talked about players pushing the limits—“running through a telephone pole” he called it—as he saw spikes and “really positive spots” from everyone.
Both Pocrnic and Burke said the transition to university basketball, both on and off the court, has been difficult but something that will benefit them in the long run.
Meanwhile, Burke grew up in Hamilton, playing for Cardinal Newman Secondary School.
“It’s not something I want to give up,” she said of varsity basketball. “So since I love the sport so much, something I have to get used to [are] the practices and the amount of workouts we do.”
Burke said she’s excited to be part of “a new family” with a lot of team-bonding off the court already.
On the court, the transition “requires a lot of mental toughness and it’s another thing we got to work on,” according to Burke.
“It’s crazy at first, but it’s good that they’re getting this much experience now,” guard Madison Reid added. She pointed out that it helps getting the nerves out now before the regular season.
The returning players also saw increased minutes. Fifth-year forward, Alyssa Cerino played 38 minutes in the first game and 35 in the second. Reid played 38 minutes both times.
New coaching staff
The games were the first in a transition phase for the team—a learning experience, as guard Jaclyn Ronson called it. “We’re all trying to find our footing with the new team, new coaching, what we’re all doing together,” she added.
The coaching staff has almost entirely changed except for assistant coach Eric Parthenais. However, according to players, the Carleton system is still intact with many of the same tactics and fundamentals.
“I think he’s done a really good job,” Cerino said of Cheng. “He understands the Carleton culture when he came into this and we’ve kind of shown him and he’s done a good job with being patient.”
Burke and Pocrnic also called it a “process” of Cheng getting familiar with them and vice versa. Cheng is “very wise [with] a lot of analogies,” Pocrnic said with a laugh.
“They’re intense in different ways,” Ronson said.
For instance, Cheng’s intensity in practice comes from transitioning from drill to drill, while Charles’s intensity was more focused on each drill. “With Taffe, during the drills, you have to go hardcore during the drill or we’re stopping the drill,” Ronson noted.
The intense practices conditioned them in past years—and even now—for games.
“I was saying to my parents yesterday, as much as we ran and worked hard then, I feel more tired after a practice,” Reid said. Their days go from an early morning shoot-around, to work, to workouts, to practice in the evening.
Dealing with injuries
The players acknowledged the amount of injuries that led to the heavy minutes was unusual. There’s not a specific reason for it either.
“Bad timing,” Reid called it. Ball suggested the intense training could be a factor as well. “We’re also trying to take caution for the season coming up,” Cerino added.
Cheng said it was “randomness.”
“We had three concussions with people getting hit with a ball in summer camp,” he said. But the focus is on working with those who are healthy, as well as supporting injured players, he added.
While most of the players are expected to return healthy for the season, guard Karyne Jolicoeur isn’t. She tore her ACL during the summer. “Nobody wants that, no player wants that,” Reid said. “It just sucks because she had so much potential this year.”
Jolicoeur will miss out on playing at nationals in her hometown. It’s a tournament her teammates said they’re looking forward to—especially the new ones. “That’s going to be huge,” Pocrnic said. “We’re hosting, so that’s even crazier.”
For Ball, it’s a key part of why she came to Carleton. “Basketball was a huge thing,” she noted. “I was tired of losing a lot.”
“Being at Algoma, this is huge for me,” Ball said of nationals. “Even just being there, it’s something I never thought I would do.” After four years in university already, she won’t have to wait much longer for that.
Feature image by Michael Sun
