Soaring Higher

Kwantlen’s own Eagles are reaching new heights.

By Kyle Prince and Monica Mah, contributors

The PacWest Basketball award is given out once a year to exceptional players throughout the national Pacific Western region, and this year two of KPU’s very own brought fame and recognition to the university. Shilpa Khanna and Matt Cooley flew the highest amongst an all-star Eagles team this year and were recognized by coaches from multiple teams for both their skills on the court and the impressions they made on their fellow teammates.

Shilpa Khanna is a second year biology student at KPU. She’s been an avid basketball player since she was young, but didn’t truly get into the sport until the eighth grade, when her basketball training began.

“Basketball has been a large part of my life for a good part of seven years,” she says. “It’s been the foundation for my life, and it’s been where I meet most of my friends. Most of my life revolved around basketball and it’s important to me because it puts so many things in perspective for me. It teaches me so much about life, like how to be disciplined and value hard work.”

The switch from high school to university isn’t an easy one, and since most players are signed from high school the team becomes something like another class. There are film sessions, gym days, and practices several times a week, which can put a lot of pressure on the players. Film sessions are where they prepare for future games: “It’s kind of like taking a course where you have to memorize numbers from each what their go to thing is and their weakness is,” Khanna describes. It seems her hard work paid off too, now that she’s been recognized for her efforts.

Her sentiments shed a little light on why she won the PACWEST award. “It’s an amazing feeling, it shows that hard work does pay off. But I know that this is from my teammates constantly pushing me to get better and my coaches helping me succeed. It may be an award given to me, but it’s a group effort and there are so many people behind it. Just having the gym availability and working out, it means a lot. It’s a lot of work.”

Matt Cooley is the other award recipient and a first year student at KPU. He won the award because of how fast he’s managed to make himself known in basketball. Fresh out of high school, Matt has been competing against fourth year students and 26-year-olds, while still leading the conference in rebounds. Basketball is important to Cooley because, “it helps me with building overall life skills and team building.”

“To win an award you must do something extraordinary,” says Vladimir Nikic, Cooley’s coach.

It’s more than just the individual efforts that go into these awards. The team experience provided by the coaches and other players really bring together the Eagles, which allows for players to really excel in their respective areas. Going to conferences and returning with these types of awards shows the level at which our players are performing at.

“It’s fascinating, I enjoy every day of it because you’re surrounded by players that have this kinesthetic intelligence and really work for it,” says Nikic. “They possess a large amount of talent when it comes to basketball.”

For any potential Eagles out there, the two award recipients are leaving you with a few words of wisdom.

“Just be open minded when it comes to everything [and] when you play, give it all you got,” says Cooley.

Khanna has a similar approach: “Stick with it. It takes a lot of hard work to get into it. I sucked, but I would go to the gym every morning at 7 a.m. before school just to get better,” she says. “You have to be dedicated to improving when it comes to basketball. It’s the little things that make the difference.”

A bit of natural talent can’t hurt, but with enough dedication and a love of the game, everyone can become an Eagle and soar.