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Olympic dreams are a little bit closer for New Zealand native and Crowder College student Jordan Hunter.
“To play in the Olympics, it would be amazing,” Hunter said.
Hunter of Papakura, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand is a sophomore at Crowder. She took up basketball at an early age and earlier this month scored one of a dozen positions on the Tall Ferns, national team for New Zealand.
During the summer she played in a series of tournaments with New Zealand teammates against Australia, Brazil and host-nation China, then late in August she flew back to Neosho, made sure her class schedule was set up and ready for an absence and then flew out again on Aug. 30 to make basketball camp in New Zealand. After a four-day camp she met with the head coach and two assistants. They listed her strengths and where she had room for improvements and at the end of the meeting told her she was on the national team.
“I was surprised,” said Hunter, currently the second-youngest member of the Tall Ferns, “but I was really happy that I had made it and relieved.
“It is one of my goals to play in the Olympics for New Zealand.”
After camp ended on Sept. 4 the team had a day to travel, a day to practice and then it was game day. They played three different places in six days during the FIBA Oceania Women’s Championship and lost 92-73 to the Opals, Australia’s national team. New Zealand Coach Kennedy Hamilton-Kereama told reporters it was one of the closest scores the Tall Ferns, 16th-ranked in the world, have had against the number three-ranked Opals. The Australian team took silver during the Beijing Olympics.
Now, to make the Olympics, the Tall Ferns must get in the top five teams when they play again in a pre-Olympic women's tournament next June.
Hunter thinks they can make it in.
“I think we have a chance,” she said.
Coach Tina Robbins said she thinks Hunter has what it takes.
“She has what we call the intangibles,” Robbins said. “She understands the game and she has the heart and the drive.”
Hunter, Robbins said, is highly motivated as both a student and basketball player and managed to pull off making up the two weeks of class she missed to try out for the New Zealand team.
Olympic dreams are a little bit closer for New Zealand native and Crowder College student Jordan Hunter.
“To play in the Olympics, it would be amazing,” Hunter said.
Hunter of Papakura, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand is a sophomore at Crowder. She took up basketball at an early age and earlier this month scored one of a dozen positions on the Tall Ferns, national team for New Zealand.
During the summer she played in a series of tournaments with New Zealand teammates against Australia, Brazil and host-nation China, then late in August she flew back to Neosho, made sure her class schedule was set up and ready for an absence and then flew out again on Aug. 30 to make basketball camp in New Zealand. After a four-day camp she met with the head coach and two assistants. They listed her strengths and where she had room for improvements and at the end of the meeting told her she was on the national team.
“I was surprised,” said Hunter, currently the second-youngest member of the Tall Ferns, “but I was really happy that I had made it and relieved.
“It is one of my goals to play in the Olympics for New Zealand.”
After camp ended on Sept. 4 the team had a day to travel, a day to practice and then it was game day. They played three different places in six days during the FIBA Oceania Women’s Championship and lost 92-73 to the Opals, Australia’s national team. New Zealand Coach Kennedy Hamilton-Kereama told reporters it was one of the closest scores the Tall Ferns, 16th-ranked in the world, have had against the number three-ranked Opals. The Australian team took silver during the Beijing Olympics.
Now, to make the Olympics, the Tall Ferns must get in the top five teams when they play again in a pre-Olympic women's tournament next June.
Hunter thinks they can make it in.
“I think we have a chance,” she said.
Coach Tina Robbins said she thinks Hunter has what it takes.
“She has what we call the intangibles,” Robbins said. “She understands the game and she has the heart and the drive.”
Hunter, Robbins said, is highly motivated as both a student and basketball player and managed to pull off making up the two weeks of class she missed to try out for the New Zealand team.
Hunter started playing basketball competitively at 7-years-old.
Her mother, Tania Hunter, played basketball through school and on the New Zealand Army team.
“My mom loves basketball so I kinda had no choice,” Hunter laughed.
As the players get older the number of teams decreased and Hunter looked for a school where she could keep playing.
“I knew I wanted to come over to America to play,” the 21-year-old sophomore said.
It took some planning, but she had a Missouri contact who helped her arrived at Crowder. After she graduates she hopes to transfer to a four-year school and then play in Europe.
“Not only is it my passion, but it’s like a lifestyle here,” she said. “I just love being competitive and getting up there and playing.”
There are a few differences between American and international basketball. She plays by a 24-second clock instead of the 30-second clock in the states and in New Zealand she plays four quarters instead of two halves to the game, but the key difference is in how fouls are called.
“It’s a lot more physical than here,” Hunter said. “We have full court pressure all the way. We have to be perfect.”
Players get a lot more physical on the court, she said, really dogging a player without getting a foul called.
On both Tall Ferns and the Crowder team she plays point guard.
“You’re trying to control the court,” she said of her role, “You’re the coaches second man on the court so you’re pretty much the coach on the court.”
The pressure is not only on for her to direct the plays, but score. Hunter said she does not focus on winning or losing during the game, but on what play comes next and where the ball is moving.
“There’s always scoreboard pressure,” she said, but you’ve kind of got to not be to focused on that and stick to your strengths.”
At Crowder it is the team’s speed.
“We’re short but we’re quick,” Hunter said.
Crowder kicks off its season Oct. 9 in Warrensburg with the Juco Jamboree scrimmage.
