Griffiths on Fanshawe basketball

In 1891 James Naismith drafted up a game designed to keep his students active and moving in the long New England winters. He nailed a peach basket to the mezzanine of the YMCA where he worked, and thus began the sport basketball.

Shortly after in 1892 women's basketball got a kick start as well, and today it is still running strong. With the WNBA, women have the chance to play basketball on a professional level. Here at Fanshawe, we may not be a WNBA team, but our women still are pumping out and trying just as hard as those women playing professionally.

Ally GriffithsAlly Griffiths is a great example of this. The two time defender of the year and Thorndale native was very excited when talking about her achievement.

“My goals were to keep an open mind about the entire season, and treat every game like it was my last game and to win defensive player of the year again,” said Griffiths. “Individually my greatest moment was getting defensive player of the year two years in a row, but more importantly for a team was winning back to back medals at OCAA tournaments.”

When playing on a team you need to be part of the team; become a family and have good chemistry if you are going to make it. Griffiths said that chemistry is everything.

“Team chemistry is one of the most important things. It all lies in team makeup, it isn't forced or taught, you either have it or you don't. If you do great you have chemistry, if not maybe you don't.”

Her statement reflects that of baseball legend Babe Ruth who said, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.”

Fanshawe's team may not have been overly successful this year, but they are looking good in the upcoming years.

“Next year is looking good,” said Griffiths. “The upcoming class is skilled and so next year getting to provincials and maybe even nationals is a very real possibility.”

This year the women had set their goals to make it to nationals, medal at provincials and keep every team below 60 points, unfortunately they were unable to do any of these this year, but if the talent coming up is as strong as Griffiths foretells, then the next few years will be an exciting time for women's basketball. Griffiths had one thing to say to the upcoming basketball stars.

“No matter how hard it gets it is worth it. This year was the hardest struggle ever for me, and the team, but looking back on it, it brings so much character and it makes it so much worth it to go through it all in the end.”