Reds Future Faces: William McFee

Will McFee is a first year kinesiology student at the UNB and one of the newest wings on the Varsity Reds men’s basketball team.

Hailing from Northbridge, Australia, McFee left for the opportunity to play Canadian ball. He sat down with the Brunswickan to discuss the transition to Canadian basketball and being away so far away from home.

Brunswickan: Why did you choose to come to UNB?

Will McFee: I was teamed up to go to a bunch of schools in America, like division one and two school and I was deemed ineligible because of a new rule they put it. Just about, you have to be enlisted within a year of graduating high school because our summers are off. Because being from Australia our summers are off, that put me a six-month period ahead so it took me eight to ten months to get into a school. So I got deemed ineligible, so within like a week, came here, came to UNB and loved every minute of it.

B: You are twenty, so you did not come here directly out of high school?

WM: I did a prep year over in Lee, Maine last year, so that was for about a year, that was for like exposure and stuff because you don’t really get the exposure back home.

B: What do you mean by exposure?

WM: Exposure to schools and stuff they don’t really come down to Australia, so we come over here.

B: How is basketball in Australia different from basketball in North America?

WM: I find the styles like, Canada style is some-what similar, like America it is crazy how much different it is. Last year I found a lot more “me,” probably the team I was on, but back home you share the ball and stuff. And I found here everyone likes to share the ball a lot more which is more my kind of game and I like it a lot more.

B: What has your basketball career been like prior to UNB?

WM: Back home, it was pretty good, played school teams, was on the varsity teams in year eight [grade 8] so that was good. I went to an all boys private school, private catholic school back home basketball was alright there, played on state teams and stuff like New-South Wales. I played reps for (a team) which is kind of like AU ball, off the top of my head that’s pretty much all I got.

B: Is it as popular in Australia as it is in Canada?

WM: We’re working on it, our profession league the NBL isn’t doing very good. A couple teams like CB team have gone under, bankrupt and everything a couple times. So that’s a major thing, we’re just trying to get all the kids involved. They’re doing an alright job. My mom’s on the board of Basketball Australia, so she’s trying to help out with that kind of stuff.

B: What is it like to be a Varsity Red?

WM: I love it. Yeah, I love it. I don’t think there’s anything much else I can say. I was a little spectacle coming just ‘cus the way everything was set up and how quickly it was. It seemed fairly rushed but Baker just explained everything to me, how it would be, and I really do love it.

B: What is it like to be this far away from your parents?

WM: I miss Mom and Dad and Rose my sister and my dog a lot. But I don’t know, it’s good to get out and explore.