Sami Hill’s Summer Should Shine

A short while ago, one of the bright stars of the 2012 Class decided to reclassify, and take another year to ready herself for University life. We caught up with top prospect Sami Hill (5’10”, G/F, Eastern Commerce, 2013), as she looks to make some significant changes both this off-season and next school year.

Hill is a hungry player that isn’t afraid to burn a defender that poorly calculates just how fast she really is, and then next time down the floor burn that same defender from behind the arc just to keep the, guessing. Inside, her vertical will raise am eyebrow or two along with her ability to play defense while opponents struggle with her lateral quickness. But, when speaking to Hill, she prides herself on the intangibles that she brings to the teams she plays with.

“It starts with leadership and competitiveness that I think I bring. I kind of get everyone excited about the game on my team and make sure that were all into it. And after that I think I play like a scrappy game. I take what I can get and I try to create for my teammates as well,” she says.

Those are things that don’t show up on the scoresheet, but came in quite handy as her North Toronto Huskies JUEL rep league team captured a league title back in May.  They’ll also help Hill’s style of play for the upcomming school year and into post secondary play.

“My favorite way to play now is kind of how I’ve been playing with my last couple of teams which is fast break and have one in the Post and have some pass and cut. But I think that I could really get into most systems because I enjoy, whether it’s like setting me up or setting my teammates up I like helping them.”

Besides being on top of her game in basketball, she had qualified for this past school year’s fall provincial (OFSAA) Cross Country championships as well as the Track and Field provincial championships as well last month, where she just finished out of the medals placing Fourth in the 800m Finals.

What is Sami Hill looking to do for the rest of the summer? Well, she’ll be staying north of the border a little, playing in AAU tournaments a little, maybe even playing overseas a little, but of course, she’ll be playing basketball a LOT!

“This summer, I’m playing AAU with Canada Drive which has many players playing from all over Ontario, so I’ll be playing a couple AAU tournaments. Were going to the U.S.A Invitational in York, Pennsylvania [July 5-8, 2012] and were going to the Nike Elite Tournament in Chicago [July 13-15],” said Hill.

She is optimistic about how the rest of her summer is planned.  “Then I have the final tryouts for the Junior National Team at the end of July, so hopefully, if all goes well, I’ll be playing with team Canada in the middle of August.”

***UPDATE: Reports are that Sami Hill earned a nod as a Duke Women’s Basketball Elite Camp All-Star on June 28,2012. Congratulations Sami!