Jake Babic was confident, right up until the moment he got the call to coach David DeAveiro’s office Sunday. Then, for the first time, he began wondering if he had done enough to secure a spot on Canada’s cadet (under-17) national basketball team.
“My heart was racing,” the Grade 11 Loyola student said. “I was trying to go through in my mind who would be on the team.”
Babic breathed a sigh of relief when DeAveiro told him he would be among the players travelling to Lithuania for the FIBA U17 World Championships, where he’ll be joined by Oakville’s Anthony Pate.
Pate had good reason to be a little less anxious than Babic. The former Holy Trinity student, who now attends Long Island Lutheran in New York, was a member of last year’s Canadian cadet team that won a bronze medal at the FIBA Americas tournament.
Pate believes Canada can not only continue, but improve upon, its recent success at the younger age groups. Canada won a bronze medal at the inauguaral world under-17 championships in 2010.
“I feel we can go very far in the tournament,” Pate said. “Canada’s been one of the top teams and basketball has been improving every year. We’re ready to make a monumental change.”
Pate made the move to the U.S. last fall hoping to increase his visibility and earn an NCAA scholarship. He did little to hurt those chances this year. In March, his last-second three-pointer gave Long Island Lutheran a 62-61 victory in the New York State Federation Class A championship game.
“It was the most clutch shot I’ve ever seen,” Lutheran coach John Buck told the New York Post. “It’s not surprising at all, considering how well he’s played.”
Though they were once high school rivals, Pate and Babic have played together often with Grassroots Canada in the summer as well as on the Central West Region’s gold-medal winning team at the Ontario Games in 2010.
Babic said he’s thrilled to be one of the players that will try to help Canada continue to raise its profile in the sport.
“Representing your country is an honour. Not many can say they’ve done it,” said the 6-foot-3 guard. “There’s more talent coming out of Canada — guys in the NBA and our age group is doing really well. All I can say is it’s an honour.”
Babic said it still hadn’t sunk in that he would be donning the Canadian jersey, though he didn’t really have much time to think about it. Within 24 hours of being named to the team, he was boarding a plane for France where the Canadian team will train and play exhibition games against Egypt and China.
Canada will open the world tournament with three games in three days, beginning with the host Lithuania on June 29, followed by Croatia and Argentina. It will wrap up pool play with games against Spain (July 3) and Korea (July 4).
Pate, who also stands 6-foot-3 and plays guard, says his previous experience with the cadet team will help him this time around.
“I learned the international style of play and how to represent my country as a basketball player,” he said.
Babic also has some big-game experience to draw on after playing in an OFSAA gold-medal game at Loyola in 2011.
“That whole experience, especially as a Grade 10 with guys like Adam (Presutti) and Rohan (Boney), helped me ease into pressure situations,” he said. “That helped a lot and I couldn’t say that I get nervous now.”
Well, almost never.