Sharpshooting Corby happy to be back
V-Red to globetrotter | Closing out university career in style; next year, she'll follow hockey playing fiance Justin Bowers
But she's not staying long.
The 24-year-old point/shooting guard with the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds women's basketball team is certainly enjoying her return to the V-Reds and varsity basketball after a two-year absence. She's enjoying the fact the V-Reds are first in the Atlantic University Sport women's basketball conference and fifth ranked in the country with a 7-1 record - a statistic they hope to improve tonight when they take on the Saint Mary's Huskies of Halifax in a 6 p.m. tipoff at the UNB Main Gym. The V-Reds men's squad, 4-4, entertain the 3-6 Huskies at 8 p.m.
Corby said she knew when she was contemplating a return to campus that this year's team would be good. With fifth-year post Amanda Sharpe, her older sister Megan Corby installed at the point, and highly touted rookie Claire Colborne delivering as advertised from the wing, her initial impression was quickly confirmed.
"Winning is a bonus," said the five-foot-six Fredericton native and former AUS all-star. "Good team chemistry helps (determine) whether a team wins or loses, I think. It's all there."
In spades, in fact.
The V-Reds average a league-high 86.5 points per game, tops in the conference and among the best in the country in that department. While Colborne has been garnering most of the attention, leading the country in scoring through the first half of the season, Sharpe and Corby have come through with a valuable 2-3 punch. Or, as they demonstrated in twin wins over the Memorial Sea-Hawks last weekend, a lethal 1-2-3 punch. Corby was high scorer for the V-Reds in both ends of the sweep, contributing 24 points Saturday and 19 Sunday.
"I don't think I took any more shots than I usually do," said Corby. "I think they just went in. The way our offence is, everyone gets chances to score. I'm not sure what happened. I was open, and when I was getting the ball, I was scoring."
Sharpe added 21 and 16, while Colborne was held - a relative term - to 16 and 14. All three are among the top seven scorers in the conference.
"We're pushing the ball that produces some easy shots sometimes, we're forcing some turnovers that produce some easy shots, and a few of our players are doing a really good job of attacking the basket, and when teams collapse on them, kicking the ball out to people for wide-open shots," explained V-Reds coach Jeff Speedy.
He referred to having three starters consistently in double digits in scoring as "an insane luxury."
"You can't stop us all," said Corby.
"If you stop one, the other two will be able to score," she said.
"It's a cliche, but she's getting better every week," said Speedy of the younger of the two Corby sisters in the V-Reds back court. "We're very, very happy with her effort in practice, her caring about both ends of the court, her caring about being a point guard when she's a point guard and a shooting guard when she's that. It's very tough to wear two hats. We just want her to be a scorer when she's playing the two and get other people the ball when she's playing the one."
Corby said coming back to Fredericton to enrol in the education program and complete her fifth season of eligibility was the right move. While working in Halifax, she had actually contemplated taking courses at Saint Mary's and playing her fifth season there. But her dad convinced her to make constructive use of her final year. Hence the decision to enrol in the education program.
It's one of several life-altering decisions she's made in the last few months.
For instance: she's engaged to professional hockey player Justin Bowers, who now plays for the American Hockey League's Portland Pirates. The couple will marry Aug. 6.
Wedding plans are progressing. She travelled to Greenville, South Carolina, over the Christmas break. Bowers started the season there with the Road Warriors of the ECHL. While it was he who donned the uniform, it was she who lived the life of a Road Warrior.
First, she accompanied the V-Reds women's basketball team on a Christmas trip to Cuba, where they played a couple of exhibition games and did some bonding as a team. The highlight of the trip for Corby was a visit to an orphanage, where, language barrier or not, she had a great time playing with the kids.
She flew from there right to Greenville to spend some time with Bowers. He was called up by the Pirates midway through her stay, so she flew with him to Portland, where her parents picked her up. She was in the stands with her dad on New Year's Eve, when Bowers scored his first AHL goal of the season.
"It was awesome, actually," she said. "This was the first time I got to see him play in the AHL."
She and Bowers went to high school together, but didn't begin dating until he was in university. He played two seasons at St. Thomas before beginning a pro hockey odyssey that has taken him from Dayton, Ohio, to Allen, TX, to AHL stops in Abbotsford and Lake Erie, OH.
She'll go where he goes next season, whether it be Europe, or somewhere in North America.
She would prefer Europe actually. It would give her a chance to put her teaching degree to use, and perhaps even to play some basketball, "depending on where we are."
Should they be in the United States, she said she'll volunteer or coach in the schools.
The couple faces a dilemma down the road though: basketball players or hockey players?
"If I got my way, it would be basketball," she said, giggling. "If it's a boy, I don't think I'd be getting him to play basketball. It would definitely be hockey. But I won't be getting up at 6 a.m. for those morning skates."
AUS women's volleyball
The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds entertain the Dalhousie Tigers in Atlantic University Sport women's volleyball conference action Saturday at 5 p.m. at the UNB Main Gym. The V-Reds are 6-6 and tied for third in the standings, with the 5-5 Tigers two points back.
The Reds split a pair of matches on home court last weekend, defeating Acadia 3-2 and losing to Saint Mary's.