Roster for defending national champion U of Sask. Huskies has European flair

Saskatoon might not be high on the list of vacation destinations in winter, but that hasn’t stopped the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s basketball team from attracting top international talent.

For the past decade the Huskies have sprinkled their roster with European players, and in the process have won three national championships.

Head coach Lisa Thomaidis is a big reason the Huskies have been able to recruit international players. Thomaidis has been Canada’s and Germany’s national head coach, which has given her a number of contacts around the world.

The first big recruit was Latvian guard Sabine Dukate in 2016.

“She was the one that really made us think about recruiting more internationally,” Thomaidis said.

“She won two national championships with us and just was a difference-maker."

This year the No. 1-ranked Huskies have a pair of international players — Swedish forward Olivia Harm and English guard Charli Wroe.

“It's a big trend of leaving Sweden to go play in the States,” said Harm, who is in her second year with the Huskies.

Thomaidis recruited her out of high school.

“I came on my visit, I got to meet some of the alums and they talked so highly of the program, so it was hard not to love,” Harm said. “And then they have a great business program. I'm a business major. So it was just like a lot of pieces were adding up that seemed really great.”

Thomaidis says it’s not an easy process to bring a player over.

“I remember one day I was in contact with people from Finland, from Germany, from Australia, from Israel, the U.S. 

“It's just contacts that you make over the years, especially coaching internationally and just seeing if there's players out there that are interested in coming to Canada.”

Charli