Barry Wright
Nicole Bus will be keeping tabs this basketball season on the Fairfield University Stags.
That's because the Northern Vikings senior girls basketball team member has accepted a four-year full scholarship to the Connecticut-based school.
She’ll begin her career on the oceanfront campus, about a ten-hour drive from here, next September.
“The campus is absolutely beautiful and it's a very strong academic school, which is really important to me,” said the 17-year-old, who will study biology with an eye on a career in the medical field.
In addition to be attracted to the aesthetics of the location, Bus says the NCAA Division 1 women's hoops program is top notch on and off the court.
“The basketball team is great,” she said, noting Fairfield was picked to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this season in a preseason vote by coaches of conference schools. Bus also calls the coaching staff “amazing,” saying they're positive people who treat their players like family.
The graduate of Bright's Grove Public School began playing the sport in Grade 4. She was told she’s being counted on to make an immediate impact once she arrives on campus for the 2016-17 season.
“I have decent size and I can move anywhere,” said the six-footer. “I can play in the post, but I've worked a lot on developing an outside shot, so I can play on the perimeter as well.”
Following a win over St. Patrick’s in the Lambton Kent Secondary School Athletic Association final last month, Bus and her Vikings lost their opening game at SWOSSA, but rebounded with a win over Windsor-St. Anne's to qualify for the Ontario tournament in Windsor. It was ongoing at press time.
Bus will play club basketball with the London Ramblers of the provincial basketball league, called JUEL, over the winter months before embarking on her collegiate career.