Woodlands earns berth on Northern team

Being told by the coaches that your chances of making a team aren’t very good isn’t exactly the type of feedback a player wants to hear.
But that’s exactly what happened to Muskie senior basketball player Evan Woodlands at the Northern Ontario tryouts in Sudbury earlier this week.
Woodlands admitted he was “lost” during the team’s first practice as he was confronted with some new plays for the very first time.
But after studying the team’s playbook and then shining in an exhibition game against some college-aged players, Woodlands, 17, fought himself onto a team he wasn’t supposed to make.
Now, he’s off to York University in Toronto for a six-game, four-day exhibition tournament against the very best high school players in the province.
Woodlands, one of just two players from west of Thunder Bay to make the 12-man lineup, admitted it wasn’t easy.
“On Friday, we had a two-hour practice but I had some problems with some of the stuff that I have never seen before,” he noted. “Technically, the plays were a lot tougher and everyone there plays well man-to-man compared to NorWOSSA, where they play just simple two, three zones.”
Still, it was his play in the exhibition game–highlighted by 10 points and three rebounds in limited action–that caught the attention of the coaching staff.
While Woodlands hasn’t been relegated to a particular position, the 6’2” forward will have the rest of this week to showcase his talents to the coaches. By then, he figures he’ll have a better idea where he is suited in a lineup that doesn’t necessarily have real size up front but has a plenty of talent at guard.
And though it’s a definite step up from the basketball played in NorWOSSA, Woodlands was quick to note it’s easy to get accustomed to.
“All the players are good so it’s easy to fit right in,” he said.