The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team has added some size to their roster with Cameron Smythe, a seven-foot centre, for the upcoming 2013-14 season.
Smythe has spent the past year at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass. after four years at Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School in his hometown of Vancouver.
Despite offers to play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Smythe said he could not turn down an offer to play for a successful Ravens team.
“They win championships year in and year out,” he said. “They’re obviously doing something right. I just wanted to be a part of that.”
While success has become synonymous with Carleton basketball over the last decade, Smythe said he knows it takes hard work to win championships and is ready for the day-to-day grind from Ravens head coach Dave Smart.
“I’m expecting [Smart] to push me, and he definitely will,” he said. “He’ll probably push me to my limits just to get the most out of me as a basketball player.”
While he will be able to turn to veterans like fellow B.C. natives Phil and Thomas Scrubb for advice during his move to the nation’s capital, Smythe said he feels the transition will be easier after spending the year away from home in Massachusetts last season.
“I don’t think it will be too hard to adjust to a new city because I pretty much did it this year,” Smythe said. “I’ll look to [the Scrubbs] for help just for the first couple weeks until I get familiar with everything.”
Despite hailing from the same province, Smythe has only played against the Scrubbs a few times, but he said he is looking forward to wearing the same jersey this season.
“We’ve never had a guy that big on our team since I’ve been here,” said Scrubb. “He’ll help protect the net and create mismatches for the other team on offence and defence.”
After three consecutive Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championships and nine in the last 11 seasons for the Ravens, Smythe said he knows the goal is to win the big prize once again this year.
“You’ve just got to come together as a team to achieve that [goal]”, he said. “They’ve done it the past few years, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to do it again.”
