BOWIE – Of all the players who took part in last weekend’s DMV Elite Girls Go Hard in the Paint Tournament, none came from as far away as Haley Mitchell.
The 15-year-old guard travelled from Saskatchewan, Canada to play with the Alana Beard’s Future 15/16 Under team in order to test herself against higher-quality competition.
The trip proved to be a success, with Mitchell seeing good minutes as AB Future claimed the 15/16 title at Bowie City Gym.
“It makes me better,” Mitchell said. “I think the competition around here is way better. You get way better coaching here. Like, they teach you things that in Canada they wouldn’t.”
Mitchell’s link to AB Future is Antwan Wallace, who works with her at Doggound Basketball Training Academy in Regina, Saskatchewan. He eHhHe His longtime friends with AB Future President Keith Chestnut, as both men played college basketball at Division II Pfeiffer (N.C.) University, although their careers didn’t overlap.
“She’s a freshman in high school, and I kind of saw a lot of potential in her,” Wallace said of Mitchell. “It’s a different game here than up there. Those kids, they’re really behind, and this is top basketball here. So I wanted to really present an opportunity to her because she’s really interested in getting a lot better and playing college here in the United States.”
Mitchell – who is a freshman at Campbell Collegiate High School – is the first player Wallace has brought down, but he said he hopes to build a pipeline of both boys and girls players to the area.
Haley Mitchell (bottom left) traveled from Saskatchewan to play with Alana Beard's Future last weekend.
That transition is a bit of an adjustment, Mitchell said.
“In Canada it’s a lot slower pace, a lot less intensity, just stuff like that,” she said. “There’s less opportunities in Canada, so he thought he would bring me down here and just try it out. It’s tough, but I think if I work, I can compete.”
Mitchell’s family agreed to come down just two weeks prior to the tournament, which made the idea of buying plane tickets cost-prohibitive. Instead, the family drove 12 hours to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and then caught a flight to Chicago and another to Baltimore.
“We knew about a year ago that she would have to get in some better competition in order to progress,” Mitchell’s father Barry said, “because of some of the games she was having at home. Like, in the high school playoffs she scored 36 points. So, you have to get her in better competition – that’s not normal, unless you’re the best player in the world. So, if you get here down here and you get her in some better competition, then it’s for the best over time.”
Mitchell’s mother Heather agreed that the experience should prove beneficial in the long run.
“It’s the same age group as she’s playing at home, but it’s definitely a better quality of basketball,” Heather Mitchell said. “Basketball in Regina is considered a very strong program as opposed to some other areas of Saskatchewan, but this is definitely an eye-opener for her. If she wants to continue to play and get better, this is the caliber she’s going to have to play with.”
Haley Mitchell said she’s open to joining AB Future for more tourneys, and said she’s even given consideration to moving to the states for high school.
“[Wallace] said this would be a good experience for me, so I came down,” she said. “He’s going to try to get me into a couple more tournaments with these guys, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Follow DMV Elite Editor-in-Chief Marcus Helton on Twitter: @MarcusHelton or e-mail him at mhelton@dmvelite.com
