NEW GLASGOW – Basketball has taken Abbie Delaney and Lucia MacKay to many places.
Most recently, the Grade 12 students at NNEC recently played at a tournament in Boston, where the summer team they play for – the Sting – captured a banner in their Varsity division, after winning three of their four tournament games.
“We just went without practising, we didn’t really have a lot of sets, it was fun to just go out and play,” said MacKay, who has played for U14, U15 and U17 provincial teams, and was a member of the Nova Scotia squad that competed at the Canada Games last summer in Winnipeg.
“I always just keep playing basketball,” MacKay said. “It never really ends when my school season ends.”
Delaney and MacKay are the only two Pictou County players on the Sting; the rest are from other parts of Nova Scotia, and one of the players is from Moncton. “I thought it was really awesome, because I got to play with different girls,” Delaney said.
The team is coached by Andy MacKay, Lucia’s father, who is also the girls basketball coach with the NNEC Gryphons.
The Sting went to Boston with just eight players last weekend, and despite being down to seven bodies by the time the tournament ended, still managed to win the banner.
Delaney and MacKay have been playing hoops together since they were in Grade 5.
“We’re best friends,” says MacKay, who adds that being so familiar with each other helps on the basketball court.
“We’re just so used to each other’s style of basketball by now, because we’ve been playing together for so long.”
MacKay has already committed to play at StFX University next fall, while Delaney will attend the University of New Brunswick, where she hopes to catch on with the varsity Reds women’s basketball program.
Delaney said she would recommend to any young athlete that they give basketball a try.
“It is a huge part of my life,” says Delaney. “I’ve made a lot of friends and you get to see a lot of places.”
