Call it “preppin’ for the Prep team”.

Like any good sports organization, the Lo-Ellen Park Prep Knights realized very quickly after their entry to the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association (OSBA) in the fall of 2018 that adding some sort of a connected feeder system would be crucial in ensuring that the program enjoyed some level of success down the road.

Covid-19 clearly threw a wrench into the plans less than two years later. But as the dust settled, the Lo-Ellen Park Prep Jr Knights were welcomed to the fold, just in time for the 2023-2024 season.

A grade nine student at Lo-Ellen, Ellie Sauve has her sights set on ascending to the varsity team sooner rather than later, already having benefitted from some call-up experience this year with the big team. The fact that the two squads often practice together only serves to raise the bar, overall, on the level of basketball that is being developed – not to mention building some key chemistry when the time comes to welcome the younger reinforcements.

“The size, the strength, the speed, the experience they all bring – it makes the practices that much more competitive,” said Sauve, a guard who starred with an impressive collection of Team North talent last summer which claimed bronze at the Ontario Summer Games in London. “It brings up the energy and helps develop us as a junior team.”

Staff members at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School, coaches Jennifer Bourget (varsity) and Lisa Carruthers (junior varsity) share basketball wisdom regularly, a bonus for the likes of Sauve and company who just can’t get enough of the sport.

“I would say that coach Jen and coach Carruthers actually coach very similar,” said Sauve. “I really enjoy learning from what they have to say. I’ve had different coaches and I like hearing their opinions to add things to my game.”

A regular with the club system in Sudbury for some time now, Sauve was fully aware that her game needed to grow the further she climbed the ranks, that narrowing tip of the developmental pyramid offering greater and greater competition.

“When I was younger, I always felt that I could use my speed to get by people, to get to the net for an easy lay-up or something,” she noted. “Now, I’ve worked on my shot, often coming in for early practice. It’s great because if I have a length defender, I’m able to shoot over the top of them.”

Still, with a record of 1-8 to date this year, it’s clear that Sauve and company have ample gap to close before they can go toe to toe with the best that the OSBA has to offer. “It’s amazing to see the talent on a team like Crestwood (Preparatory College), not just with one or two players but right across the board,” said Sauve.

“I love playing against because they challenge me and I get to learn from them too. We’re typically undersized, so we really have to focus on defense, boxing out hard against taller players and communicating rotations. Offensively, moving the ball around and getting multiple penetrations and kick-outs is key.”

“Being quicker to the ball helps, but it’s also a matter of wanting it more – and we need to be smarter, too; quicker and smarter than bigger teams,” Sauve added.

Seventeen year-old Kiersten Goudreau has walked in her shoes.

Four years ago, just commencing high-school, Goudreau ventured south to suit up with Niagara Juel Prep, returning home the following year. Now a three year veteran of the LEP initiative, the elder of two children in the family (her brother, Payton, is two years younger) does not regret her year in southern Ontario.

“I think it was really good for me moving away,” she said. “I learned to cook – and being on my own.” Homemade pizza or homemade pasta are her go to dishes – a tribute to the Italian lineage that runs through her family. “And I can help the girls now that are not from here. I know what they are going through.”

A member of the Lo-Ellen varsity team, Goudreau recently committed to the Nipissing Lakers (OUA), her on-court acumen far more advanced now than when she returned to Sudbury in grade ten.

“I had to work on my defense,” she explained. “In Niagara, we only played zone. Here, there is a lot more man to man full court stuff. It’s hustle and talking and moving my feet all the time. And I have to really pay attention to our scouting reports.”

“Against this player whose right-handed, I might have to force her left as much as possible,” Goudreau continued. “Or she likes to drive so I might back up a little and not play up on her quite as much, stuff like that.”

Experiencing a variety of teammates has left Goudreau far better equipped to dealing with the inevitable turnover that will occur at the university level, even as she eases more comfortably into something of a leadership role with the Knights this year.

“I am able to communicate a lot better now; my confidence is definitely up,” she said. “I am able to work with different people. In my three years here, we’ve had three different groups.”

The 2025-2026 OUA season will bring about even more new faces for Kiersten Goudreau – though her selection of Nipissing as a landing spot for the next step in her career ensures at least some familiarity not all that far away.

“Being close to my grandparents and my parents and my brother was a big factor (in my decision to choose the Lakers),” Goudreau noted.

Still, it is nice to have that decision on post-secondary studies and athletics now out of the way.

Every step carries opportunities and challenges. The addition of a junior varsity team just makes the basketball pathways for countless young local women that much more easy to follow.

2024-2025 Junior Varsity Knights: Annick Gilbert, Sofie Lafond, Jacqueline Tissot van Patot, Zayda Paris, Ellie Sauve, Mattia Mullen, Sunny Dunlop, Mila Beljo, Sophie Zubert, Avery Smith, head coach Lisa Carruthers, assistant coaches Adam Sauve and Steve Dunlop.

2024-2025 Varsity Knights: Violet Humble, Sophie Miller, Sidney Skrobot, Sarah Guignard, Michaela Tripp, Lennex Belair, Kyla Viotto, Kiersten Goudreau, Kaitlyn McMillan, Ella McCarty, Allessia Vallilee, head coach Jennifer Bourget and assistant coach Dawn Russell.