Lucas Punkari
He’s already known as one of the most feared shooters in the NorWOSSA boys’ basketball loop.
But now coaches and scouts in the U.S. have a better idea of the talents local player Will Anderson possesses.
The Grade 12 student at Fort High, who plays as a shooting guard for the Muskies, took part at a shoot-out event put on by Pennsylvania Hoops in Harrisburg, Penn. on Sept. 30, which saw 200 players compete in front of 147 college coaches at the campus of Penn State Harrisburg.
“After I went to OFSAA with the Muskies back in the spring, I got an e-mail from a scouting agency, and they asked me if I wanted to come down to a shoot-out event in New York in May,” Anderson recalled.
“I wasn’t able to go down to that one, but they asked me if I wanted to go to the Pennsylvania event and that they would pay for my fees, so I decided to go down to that one,” he added.
Anderson, the only Canadian to attend, found himself playing with and against a number of talented hoopsters from Pennsylvania, New York, and Washington, D.C. during the event, which featured three games during the course of the day.
“I was pretty happy with how I did during the games,” Anderson said.
“I thought that I played good on both sides of the court with my offensive and defensive play, but I also felt that I could have been a little bit better out there,” he admitted.
“The difficult thing was that I didn’t know who anyone was on the teams and what they were thinking, so it was kind of like a pick-up game at times and we were just going off of instincts.”
With the majority of the coaches in attendance from Pennsylvania college and university programs, Anderson currently is waiting for a scouting report to arrive in the mail from the shoot-out that will grade his overall play during the three games.
However, he has received an invitation to return to Harrisburg in April, where he would take part in a all-star game.
“I might go to that but it seems like an awful lot of travelling just to play in one game,” Anderson said.
“I had chance earlier this year to go to a Lakehead camp and a Providence College camp just outside of Winnipeg, so if I have the chance to play after high school at a really good school, I’ll take it,” he added.
“I’m hoping that something comes of this, though, and I’m able to get a call from a couple of coaches, but I just have to wait and see what happens.”
While his primary athletic focus right now is with the Muskie senior boys’ volleyball team, Anderson is preparing to help the black-and-gold return to the all-Ontario basketball championships later this winter, with the experience at the Harrisburg camp providing extra motivation.
“When I was talking to my parents before I went down there, I wanted to see if I was just good for this area or if I was good enough to play with guys from other regions,” he explained.
“But after going down there, and being invited to the all-star game, that just gives me more confidence coming into this season here,” he said.
