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After an exhausting 15 months of recruitment, Kelowna’s Kennedy Dickie has made a verbal commitment to play NCAA Division 1 basketball at Eastern Washington University.
In contact with as many as 25 NCAA Div. 1 schools and several universities in Canada, the Kelowna Secondary School student-athlete chose the EWU Eagles in Cheney, Wash. for many different reasons. Not the least are: the stable coaching staff led by Wendy Schuller; a competitive program that has seen the Eagles finish in the top four among Big Sky Conference teams in eight of the past 10 years; the proximity to home; a good opportunity to earn playing time early in her career; and the excellent academic support of EWU athletes.
The verbal acceptance of the full-ride scholarship was finalized in after a recent official visit to the EWU campus where the 17-year-old Kelowna Owls forward met with the entire coaching staff and team members.
“Everyone was so warm and friendly and I connected instantly with them,” said Dickie, coming off a busy summer of basketball that included a bronze medal and an all-star selection at the Canadian U17 championship tournament. “The campus is the perfect size, and I loved absolutely everything about the school and the visit.”
Prior to the trip to Cheney, Kennedy made unofficial visits to the University of Washington, Washington State University, the University of Idaho and the University of the Pacific. She also visited the University of B.C. in Vancouver. While she had planned trips to several other schools, they were canceled after making the commitment to EWU.
The Eagles’ coaching staff first saw Dickie play at a tournament in Oregon in July of 2017 when she was a member of Team BC. After streaming several Team BC games, EWU assistant coach, Bryce Currie, reached out to her high school and provincials coaches while head coach Schuller followed up by watching Dickie at a high school tournament in January.
Schuller was especially impressed with Dickie’s versatility, toughness and athleticism.
“I guess because she saw me playing every position — from point guard to post — she could see the potential of me fitting in with her team,” said the six-foot tall Dickie. “You can tell coach Schuller really cares about her players and has high expectations of them — both on the court and in the classroom.”
Dickie, who helped lead the Lady Owls to their first provincial AAA high school basketball championship in March (she was the MVP in the championship game), said both Schuller and KSS coach, Darren Semeniuk, are looking to her continuing her physical play but staying out of foul trouble this season.
“I’m sure it will also be important for me to focus on my perimeter game and develop my play as a wing and my shooting more threes.”
A two-time national first all-star selection and a three-time provincial all-star who is a part of Basketball Canada’s talent pool, Dickie attributes her successes to her coaches in Kelowna and beyond.
“Rich Chambers (Team BC) demands a lot out of you as a player and he pushed me to perform harder than any other coach,” noted Dickie. He’s made me a better player and a better person. And Darren, Quinten (Thiessen) and Heather (Semeniuk) at KSS have been very patient and supportive while helping me develop my game and deal with the distraction of commitments to Basketball Canada and the recruiting process.”
She also lauded the efforts of Andrew Gini of Kelowna who has been working with her day in and day out for the past four years.
“I owe a great deal of my success and skill to his training.”
Having lived most of the past four summers in Vancouver to develop her basketball skills, Dickie said she appreciates the support she’s received from host families at the Lower Mainland.
“I have to send out a big thank you to all the billet families. They took good care of me and made feel at home at all times. And of course my parents have believed in me and have made all this possible with their unending support.”
Dickie will officially sign a national letter of intent at Eastern Washington in mid-November during the early signing period.
That will also be the time she and the Owls will begin their bid to repeat at B.C. high school champions.
Dickie is looking forward to the challenge and is optimistic about the 2018-19 Owls.
“We lost some great players who graduated last year. It was a special group of girls, but I think we have a chance to do really well again this year.
“It’s hard to say this early — we haven’t even had try-outs yet — but I think we should be in the thick of things against teams like Walnut Grove and Semiahmoo who are both going to be strong teams as well.”
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