CREDIT: FANSHAWE ATHLETICS
Anique Daley, the fourth-year veteran on Fanshawe's women's basketball team, is "the most athletic player in the OCAA" according to head coach Bill Carriere.

Fourth year women’s basketball player Anique Daley is a star on and off the court. Not only is she fifth overall for points on the team with 93, but she’s also one of most athletic players in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) according to head coach Bill Carriere.

“Anique is a huge contribution to our team…[she’s] extremely, extremely athletic,” Carriere said. “She’s just amazing defensively and now she’s contributing offensively as well so she’s a huge factor for our squad.”

At a young age, Daley, now 22, moved with her family from Jamaica to Chatham, Ont. and her love for all sports, and basketball specifically, emerged.

“It was a new sport that I didn’t have much experience with. I saw it and I thought that I wanted to try it out,” Daley said. “I tried it and was good at it.”

Although basketball was not the only sport Daley thrived in as she spent her childhood playing soccer, tennis and track and field. Though when it came to postsecondary, Daley decided to pursue basketball.

At 18, Daley enrolled in Fanshawe’s fitness and health promotion and embarked on being a fulltime student-athlete.

“I definitely wanted to get away from home, but I didn’t want to be too far, and it had the program I wanted to take. Basketball was [at Fanshawe]. So it had a little bit of everything.”

Once Daley’s fitness and health promotion program was completed, she decided to continue her education with Fanshawe and enrolled into the personal support worker (PSW) program, showing that being a varsity athlete, as well as a full-time student was no problem.

When asked about the demanding schedule, Daley did admit that it is hard to time manage.

“It’s quite difficult to stay on top of your school work or if you have a part-time job, you are working and then practicing everyday,” Daley said. “ You just need to make sure you are on top of everything.”

But according to Daley, the benefits of being a full-time student-athlete outweigh any negatives.

“When you are able to have fun and you are around people that are your family too, I’d say that’s pretty amazing,” Daley said.

Since Daley has been on the team for the past four years, she has earned the respect of the athletes around her, being a leader on the team that the girls can turn to.

“As a vet there will be times where you will have to step up to the leadership role and I like being there for my teammates.”

Carriere agreed that Daley is definitively one of the players others lean on.

“She’s more of a quiet leader, when Anique is in a good mood everything is peachy, so fun” Carriere said.

But it is not just the fact that she is a vet that allows her the title of leader, it is also the fact that she is extremely hardworking.

To illustrate this, Carriere described the game on Jan. 21 against the Humber Hawks, who are the top team in Canada.

“Anique checked in at the start of the game and never left, she was dominant offensively and defensively,” Carriere said. “If it wasn’t for her we wouldn’t have been in that game.”

Although the Falcons lost the game, it was only by three points with a score of 59-56.

As evident above, Daley is a leader for her fellow teammates on the court, but she is also standing up for fellow students off the court by being one of the faces of the “You Don’t Say” Campaign.

“They came to me and asked if I wanted to be a part of it and I jumped on it right away because I was like why would I not, it’s an awesome campaign and being apart of it is amazing,” Daley said.

According to Daley, she wants to be a part of more campaigns around the school to try and help in anyway she can.

“If you see something or hear something and you aren’t ok with, speak up.”

With regards to her basketball season, Daley was nothing but positive.

“I think we are doing great so far,” Daley said. “I’m excited to see where we go.”