Paige Crozon with her daughter Poppy at the 3x3 event in Edmonton in 2019, and event Team Canada won gold at. (Facebook/Paige Crozon)

By Mat Barrett

Best in Sask

Humboldt’s Crozon voted ‘Favourite Basketball Saskatchewan Alumni’ in bracket challenge

Jul 2, 2020 | 3:28 PM

With most sports at a standstill during the COVID-19 pandemic, Basketball Saskatchewan Inc. (BSI) decided to use the month of June to figure out who Saskatchewan’s favourite alumni is with a bracket challenge.

It started with 16 athletes on June 19, and ended with one being voted as the favourite alumni on July 1 and it was Humboldt’s own Paige Crozon who spent years on numerous provincial and national teams. She said it was an honour to just be nominated as part of the bracket challenge.

“And then I was so grateful and kind of overwhelmed with the amount of support and people that voted and shared and messaged me,” Crozon told northeastNOW. “So it was just a very rewarding, fun challenge to be a part of.”

En route to the finals of the BSI Alumni Bracket Challenge, Crozon outvoted Quinn Dornstauder who is currently playing professionally in Europe, then won over Krysten Boogaard who had a very successful college career at Kansas. Crozon then won in the quarter-finals over Joe de Ciman who was recently drafted by the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Saskatchewan Rattlers. The Final Four saw Crozon up against Kai Williams, who has played nearly 10 years of professional basketball in Europe. She outvoted him as well, setting up an all-female finals matchup with Jade Bellmore who is heading into her first year at the University of Regina where Crozon also won the voting. But she said seeing Bellmore and the other females involved gives them a big boost.

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“I hope that it goes to show that women in sport are being recognized throughout the province,” Crozon said. “And in basketball specifically.”

Crozon said through the whole challenge, it gave her a chance to connect again with various alumni that she played with, against, or alongside. There may have also been some good natured ribbing.

“Even though it’s just for fun, I’m still competitive and had to be a little bit chippy,” Crozon said.

The almost-26-year-old added seeing all the athletes involved, it goes to show how much talent Saskatchewan really has in basketball and hopefully it gives the province momentum going forward.

Crozon is a University of Utah alumni, and spent a season overseas playing professionally as well. Most recently, Crozon was part of Canada’s first women’s 3×3 team that played in the Women’s Series. That team would go on to win a total of four tournaments during the summer and fall of 2019. As for what’s next, Crozon said during the spring, she’s been taking courses to get certified in coaching which she said is hopefully the next step in her basketball career.

“Sport has just given me so much and it has shaped me in my life and all of my biggest mentors have been coaches or people that I’ve played with and people that have supported me,” she said. “So I wanted to get into coaching to be able to give back and support, and inspire, and motivate athletes the same way that I was when I was playing.”

Crozon said she still plans on playing 3×3 with Team Canada as she and her teammates along with Canada Basketball have decided to put a team together next year. Their goal was to make the 2020 (now 2021) Olympics, but unfortunately won’t be the case as even with four Women’s Series wins, the men’s team ranked higher internationally and only one 3×3 team can represent each country at the Olympics. Crozon said she wishes the men the best of luck in their Olympic qualifier.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6