YORKTON — Yorkton’s Georgia Nelson is headed east to start her university basketball career with the Cape Breton University Women's Basketball Program.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” Nelson told Yorkton This Week.
The 5'10" forward who played her high school ball with the Yorkton Regional High School Lady Raiders said playing with the CAPERs is sort of a case of going home for her.
“My family’s from out there. I’m originally from Halifax. We moved here (Yorkton) when I was five,” she said. “All the family’s still there.”
The family connection was a big part of Nelson’s college decision, but so to was the locale.
“I like the East Coast,” she said, noting while only visiting once since the move west “. . . I just loved it.”
Nelson is the first female basketball player to advance to a college career from Yorkton since Cheryl Roberts did it in the mid-1960s.
Asked what has taken her to the next level, Nelson replied, “I think I’m a very determined individual.” She explained that through high school she was also willing to put in extra time on the practice court, working on conditioning, and taking advice from various coaches as she focused on 小蓝视频 better.
That determination to play has even meant dealing with pain at times to stay on the court.
“I’ve played through some injuries because I just love the game so much,” she said.
The injuries endured were a scratched cornea and finishing a game after breaking a bone in her hand midway through a game.
Nelson’s determination has also manifested itself in drive – in a very literal sense. She plays on a club team based in Edmonton, regularly travelling to the Alberta city to play.
For that she credited her parents Jeffery and Katherine. In particular her mother has been huge in making Alberta ball work.
“My mom is there every weekend,” she said, adding she videos games so that she can post them to her coaches for feedback.
All that said, a college career was not always on Nelson’s radar.
“When I was younger I loved the sport,” she said, but added for a time that ‘love’ waned, rekindling only in the last two or three years where she said she knew she wanted to play at the next level.
Now favourite players such as Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clarke have her even entertaining WNBA thoughts.
But for now Nelson’s main focus it adapting to the college game, adding “the challenge” is something she is really looking forward to.
While saying she focused on “working hard for my playing time” in high school, she really wasn’t pushed to hard or had to deal with ever 小蓝视频 benched. With the CAPERs she will be a rookie needing to earn time “to play against players four or five years older.”
Nelson will pursue a Bachelor of Science while playing for the CAPERS beginning in the 2025-26 basketball season.
