Team Canada athlete Arinn Young is no stranger to making moves, whether she’s making opponents look silly on the basketball court or packing up her life for a new adventure abroad in the next chapter of her playing career.
The product of Legal, Alta. landed in Wiesbaden, Germany in September after signing her first pro contract with the Rhine River Rhinos in the top division of the German Rollstuhlbasketball Bundesliga. It’s an exciting new challenge for Young, who will no doubt bring her ‘A’ game across the pond.
“Moving to a different continent takes some adjusting,” said Young. “I find Germans are kind of like Canadians – they’re really helpful and ready to lend a hand if you need it. It’s been a decently smooth transition.”
Young is settling in nicely, sharing a place with teammates along the Rhine river. She’s learning to speak German and taking in the scenery of her new surroundings with a few hikes and local festivals. But more than anything, Young was longing to get back to basketball.
“I’ve gone from training by myself back home to now getting to practice with 8-10 players. I love that. It’s great and it’s much better than my summer. I just love training and I like working hard. It’s not a job for me but something I enjoy doing.”
The comeback recently included her first exhibition game with the Rhinos against RSV Lahn-Dill in preparation for the upcoming season, which gets underway at the end of October.
“We got our butts kicked,” admitted Young. “But it was just so much fun to play in a game that it was really hard to dwell on our butts getting handed to us. We were playing a basketball game for the first time in six or seven months, so I enjoyed it.”
More widely known by her nickname “Juice”, Young will no doubt make an impression with her solid play and her bubbly personality off court. She has established herself as a dominant force at every level she’s played, and she’s eager to elevate her game even further playing against men in the co-ed German league – which draws national team calibre players from around the world.
“I’m pretty confident right now,” she said. “I’m in really great shape because I didn’t take any time off this summer. Against Lahn-Dill, I got to compare myself against the best of the best in Germany, so that was eye-opening. I didn’t suck and I didn’t die over the course of the game. I was keeping up with the faster players, throwing my weight around when I could and giving them a little footplate to let them know I was there to play.
“I know it’s only going to improve my game. The practices are going to be so much harder and the game situations and scenarios I’ll be in will be a lot more difficult. I’m excited. It’s totally going to benefit me mentally to have to push against people who are way stronger and faster than me. And physically, I’m going to be more fit and faster. It’s always been a dream and a goal of mine to get here. I want to give it all I’ve got and show the European league what Canadian women are made of.”
It’s been a long road to get to this point, but Young envisioned a pro career in Europe early on after injury forced her to switch from stand-up basketball to the wheelchair game. She’s the latest in a long line of Canadians to pursue professional opportunities abroad.
“I’ve always wanted to play in Germany. As soon as I started my wheelchair basketball career, I was always around veteran athletes like Paralympians Tara Feser and Karla Tritten, and they did the college scene and then went and played overseas. I’ve always admired them for being able to graduate and further their careers in the sport.”
Young’s new beginning in Wiesbaden comes after she concluded a decorated five-year collegiate career with the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. She won two national championship titles with Alabama, alongside numerous individual accolades. While she was disappointed to see her final season cut short in March because of the Covid-19 pandemic, she’s ready to close the book on college and go all in on basketball.
That includes the opportunity to represent Canada at her second Paralympic Games as Tokyo 2020 looms on the horizon. While the road to Japan now runs through Germany, Young hasn’t lost sight of the final destination.
“At my first Paralympics in Rio, I was still new to the game. I went in there like a sponge, soaking in the village and the atmosphere and being with the team at the Games. I was very observant and wanted to learn. We underperformed in Rio, and I never what to have that ‘what if’ feeling again.
“In Tokyo, I know the experience will be very different. As an impact player, I really need to focus on the game and not let the outside factors affect me. As a team, we’re very good at that. We’ll enjoy it as exciting things happen, but once it’s ‘go time’ we’re really focused. We know what we want to do and we know what we’re capable of.
“I do believe Canada has a high shot of medalling in Tokyo and our sights are on gold.”
Follow Juice @dah_juice6 as she makes her mark in Germany and continues her journey with Team Canada towards Tokyo:
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