Mairi Buchan has a lot on her plate. For a 17 year-old in her final year at school, she has Advanced Higher exams in French and Chemistry on the horizon, and also Highers in PE and Business Management.

Her stiffest examination, however, comes in late August when she starts a four-year scholarship at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, at one of America’s top basketball-playing universities.

She will become the first Scottish female to play for one of the top 25 US universities, and the 6’2” centre will have to raise her game to rub shoulders with some of the best young players in the country.

Before that, she also has the small matter of playing for Scotland in the European Under-20 Championships in Macedonia in June, and then a likely trip to Poland the following month to play for Great Britain Juniors.

So far, the sixth year pupil at Denny High School has taken it all in her stride. Five “A” passes in her Highers last year has given her a solid academic base on which to build a sporting career.

She currently averages 20 points a game for Falkirk Fury in the Scottish League but she knows that playing in the American college game will be a whole new experience.

Mairi visited Virginia in November with her father Alan and Donna Finnie, coach of the Scotland junior team and who has been given the role within Basketball Scotland of developing potential for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The future player was allowed to sit behind the team bench for a game against Michigan and was even given a name-check in the local newspaper.

"The facilities are amazing,” Mairi enthuses, “It was just a fantastic atmosphere to see the team play in front of 4,000 fans when I'm used to playing in front of crowds of just 30 in the Scottish League.

"But I know how high the standard is over there. I don't think people over here appreciate what a big step up it is, but it's also a great opportunity for me.

"The basketball programme is one of the best in the country. As well as basketball practice, there will be access to strength and conditioning and sports science.

"They have won their conference for the past 16 or 17 years and I think the best they have done is reaching the Elite Eight which was back in 1999.

"The Americans really take to the Scots and I found everyone very friendly when I was out there. They like to take on foreign students and they have a Russian-born player this year.

"I've been told I'll be homesick for the first two or three weeks that I'm out there but I know it's something I have to do.

"I will not be able to get home much and I only get five days off at Christmas but my mum and dad plan to come over as much as possible."

Wendy Larry, the coach of the Old Dominion University basketball programme, has already visited Scotland to meet with Mairi’s family and the papers will all be signed in April.

She is a self-confessed basketball nut and watches the American college games on satellite sports channel NASN.

Her ambitions now lie with playing for Great Britain in 2012 or perhaps even in the WNBA.
It shows how far the player has come since she first enrolled in basketball class at primary school.

"I was really unsporty at primary school but I went along to basketball when I was in P6,” she reveals.

"My mum said I'd nothing to lose giving it a try as I was tall for my age and should have an advantage.

"I wasn't very good when I first started but the coach made it fun and I enjoyed going and that's why I stuck with it.

"By third year at high school, I was in the Scotland Under-18 team and one of the youngest in it."

Now, she is training every day and plays twice at weekends, for Falkirk Fury senior team and also for their junior side.

On Mondays, she trains with the club’s boys’ team (brother Cameron plays for them) and she trains with the girls Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays as well as fitting in a gym session on Fridays (unless there is a game).

Her hard work will stand her in good stead for her time in America and Donna Finnie – who also spent time at college in America - certainly believes she has the potential to make a name for herself in the sport.

“It was through the work I am doing on the 2012 potential programme that I managed to make contact with Old Dominion about Mairi,” she explains.

“Mairi and I established what her priorities were and then narrowed down to ten universities in the US that fit her wish list. Six of them were very interested but we narrowed it down to two, Old Dominion and William and Mary, both in Virginia.

”We visited both in late November and after she had gone back and discussed with her parents she decided on ODU, which I was delighted at as they are at present ranked number 10 in NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball and the coaching staff are fantastic.

“Mairi has the potential to pull on a GB jersey and playing for Wendy Larry at ODU will help her develop her game even further.

 “Wendy is a winner - 16 straight conference titles - and she pushes her players to be the best they can be.

“With Mairi's fantastic work ethic and her ability to play in different spots, I would say she will start to frighten some of the current GB Women's squad!”
 
RM
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