SFU women’s basketball forward Meg Wilson has been named to the Canadian team for the FISU (International University Sports Federation) games.

The 2015 FISU games will be held from July 5 to 13 in Gwangju, South Korea.

While playing for the SFU Women’s Basketball team last season, Wilson started in all 27 games she played, and averaged 12.9 points per game, and shot .538 from the field.

Women’s basketball head coach Bruce Langford explained, “The FISU games are university games that happen every two years. They are the second largest games next to the Olympics.”

“It is an amazing opportunity to play with and compete against great teams and players,” said Wilson. “This level of competition both at training camp and during the tournament forces you to challenge yourself and always work to improve. I am looking forward to my senior season and hope that I can return to SFU with new knowledge gained from international competition.”

This isn’t the first time SFU has sent students to this event. “We have had several athletes go from our basketball team over the years. Actually, every year since I can remember,” said Langford.

“She is an outstanding rebounder with very good off-the-ball defence.”

Bruce Langford, SFU Women’s Basketball coach

In 2013, Erin Chambers was selected onto the Canadian team. Langford said Chambers being left off this year was a bit of a surprise, as she won the GNAC Player of the Year in 2015, was named to the West Region All-Region First Team, and set the GNAC all-time women’s scoring record.

“I do not know why Erin was not selected, but all teams are made up with coaches of different philosophies who are looking for different skill sets,” said Langford. “Their job is to put together the best team to represent Canada. I am sure they are confident that they did that.”

Being selected to represent your country is a huge honour for any athlete, and Langford hopes this will help Wilson grow as a player. “Meg will benefit from playing in international competition. She is an outstanding rebounder with very good off-the-ball defence.

“Doing that against different styles is beneficial. Offensively, her role will be different from our team, plus, they run a different offense and that always expands a player’s game.”

Wilson is not the first SFU player to be included on the national team. “As I said, we have always had a player on this team and at least one in the national team since before I got here,” said Langford. “We hope Rachel Fradgley makes her age team in a couple of weeks.  Nayo [Raincock-Ekunweis, former women’s basketball player at SFU] is with the national team.

“We hope this success continues, but no team in Canada or the US matches this success, and the competition gets tougher all the time.”

Canada’s first game will be against Hungary on July 5. The gold medal game will be next Monday on July 13.