The University of Waterloo varsity women’s basketball team announced Oct. 18 a new and promising component added to their 2018 roster.
Mackenzie Obermayer is starting at the University of Waterloo next fall for the 2018-2019 year, debuting in her first post-secondary athletics role.
Obermayer has been in two different prep schools in the past two years playing basketball and balancing academics.
Now that Obermayer has settled on Waterloo, she plans to get into biomedical engineering to supplement her athletic pursuits.
Obermayer began as a soccer player when she was younger but has been playing basketball for four years; since grade nine. When Imprint asked what turned her to basketball, she replied, “honestly, just being tall.”
Obermayer further elaborated that when she attempted the game, she thought she “had a lot more potential in the game of basketball.”
Head Coach Craig Nickel said that Obermayer, measuring in at six-feet and two-inches, fills the team’s need for a tall member, considering the Warriors are one of the smallest teams in Ontario University Athletics by height.
Nickel has been leading the women’s basketball team at the University of Waterloo for one year now. According to Nickel, it has been a difficult transition for him after teaching and coaching at Waterloo Collegiate Institute for many years, but the change has also been very “rewarding” and “gratifying.”
Obermayer felt similarily when reflecting on her final commitment to the University of Waterloo.
According to Obermayer, when she was searching for her prospective university, everything from the environment to academics was “drawing [her] back,” and now that the decision is final, it feels “just right.”
Obermayer hopes to potentially be taken onto a national team. If not, she looks forward to “becoming the best player [she] can be,” and making use of her degree in the future.
Obermayer anticipates the hardest part of her transition to be the academics, while Coach Nickel says that typically the new players get blindsided by how “fast the game goes.”
Either way, with Obermayer as a new recruit, the 2018-2019 season is sure to be an interesting one.
