In March, Ashleyn Sarowa celebrated a provincial AAA basketball championship as a key member of a talented and close-knit W.J. Mouat Hawks squad.
In September, she’ll find herself in an interesting position – as an opponent of many of her former Hawks teammates.
Sarowa recently signed a letter of intent to play for the Trinity Western Spartans this fall. A trio of her high school compatriots – Kayli Sartori, Katie Brink and Jaslyen Singh – had already committed to the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades, the Spartans’ local rival.
“I’ve played with them for so long,” Sarowa mused, pondering the prospect of playing against her friends at the highest level of university competition in Canada.
“But I think it’ll actually be really fun, and a cool experience. There wouldn’t be any hard feelings or anything. It would just be friendly competition, like how we were in practice.”
Sarowa, a Grade 12 point guard, shared the primary ball-handling duties with Singh as Mouat marched to the AAA title. She scored the title-clinching basket – a layup with five seconds remaining – in the Hawks’ 69-64 win over Claremont of Victoria in the B.C. final.
Spartans coach Cheryl Jean-Paul said Sarowa’s reputation as a quiet leader and hard worker make her a perfect fit for the TWU program.
“Those are things you want to hear about a kid who won a provincial championship – that they earned it,” Jean-Paul said.
“It’s not always about the big stuff, but sometimes it’s about a lot of the smaller stuff. I think Ashleyn has an understanding where she’s not necessarily looking for a spotlight here. She wants to be part of a program, and she wants to be built into.”
