Almost two years ago, Kali Pocrnic and Natsuki Szczokin were celebrating a championship together.
Now, the two first-year guards are key players for their teams–Pocrnic for the Carleton Ravens and Szczokin for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. Each earning themselves a spot on the the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) all-rookie team.
They came from different backgrounds, but basketball brought them together. Growing up in Barrie, Ont., Szczokin calls herself an “introvert, more relaxed with my friends and family.”
“I’m very family-oriented,” she added, noting she learned a lot from both of them.
“I think I get my toughness from my mom to be honest and I get more of a relaxed median from my dad’s side so it balances out,” she said.
She got into basketball in grade four and continued with it, attracted by the team aspect. It also allowed her to open up more.
Meanwhile, Pocrnic inherited her love for basketball from being around her older sister Sam in Oakville, Ont., who’s in her senior year at Mohawk College.
“She’s really aggressive so I feel like I got a lot of that from her because she made me more stronger and more like ‘I want to win,’” Pocrnic noted. “She pushed me to become the player I am today.”
In 2017, both players moved away from home to basketball academy, Lincoln Prep in Hamilton, Ont., a basketball program int high school. They spent the season together as teammates, roommates and friends.
“Growing up, playing against her, she’s so quick and speedy and shifty,” Pocrnic said. “It was fun to play with her and have someone fast like that running up the court.”
Szczokin said she watched and learned from Pocrnic, since they were both guards. “I think the aspect of being competitive but also being … a supportive teammate,” she added.
Szczokin was sidelined for most of their season together with a compound fracture in her right fibula–her first serious injury.
“It was definitely a hard time readjusting from being able to run and play basketball to having to watch and not being able to do the things I wanted to do,” she said.
Pocrnic said she learned from Szczokin’s dedication to rehab from her injury.
“She definitely got hit with a really tough situation and I think she fought through it and I think that shows you can come back from anything as long as you try your hardest,” Pocrnic noted.
Upon returning from her injury, Szczokin went to Southwest Academy in London, Ont. the following season where it was a challenge to gain confidence after her injury.
“There was really a mental blockage in terms of being capable of doing things but my mind thinking that I wasn’t capable of doing stuff–like diving for loose balls, I’d hesitate,” she said.
She credits the support from her parents and coaches for helping her gain confidence through that. “I think that [injury] experience really made me stronger as a person,” she said.
Before she left Lincoln Prep, Szczokin and Pocrnic celebrated an Ontario Scholarship Basketball Association title in 2018. “A lot of feelings in that game and I feel like it was a crazy adrenaline rush,” Pocrnic said.
After moving away from academy careers, both players found their way to the nation’s capital for university in the summer of 2019. Szczokin got to bond and play with her new teammates during the Gee-Gees’ Italy trip while Pocrnic played heavy minutes in the team’s preseason games versus Drury University.
“I was very scared at first because it’s a new team, new environment,” Szczokin noted. “I was playing with many new teammates and so it was quite different for me but everyone was super nice.”
Both have played major roles. In regular season play, Pocrnic lead Carleton with 30.4 minutes-per-game (while starting all games) while Szczokin averaged 26.9 minutes-per-game. Both called every game a learning experience.
“It was definitely a big change in speed, aggressiveness, physicality, everything,” Pocrnic noted. “I was like ‘whoa’ but I definitely got used to it quickly and I really adapted well.”
Pocrnic calls it weird to play with Ravens guard Marlee Ball, since she used to watch her play with Sam growing up. Now, she’ll play with Ball for a national championship.
While Szczokin’s Gee-Gees missed out on nationals after losing to the Ryerson Rams in the OUA semi-finals, Pocrnic’s Ravens finished the tournament in sixth place.
Both of them still keep in touch throughout the season, going through the shared rookie experience.
“Last semester, we were talking about school, [to] see how each other are doing,” Pocrnic said. “She’s definitely a really good friend of mine that I enjoy seeing and talking to.”
Feature image by Tim Austen.
