By Martin Cleary
When Dasia McDonald was smoothly running through one community basketball season after another with the Nepean Blue Devils, she quite often was the youngest on her team.
That didn’t bother her, but rather motivated her to work harder to prove she belonged on the team.
As she moved into her teen years, she thought it was time to test her skills against other girls her age in the province. She attended Team Ontario tryout camps on two occasions, but both times her name didn’t appear on the final team roster.
She was understandably disappointed as a team rejection can often leave hidden bruise marks. But those blemishes went away because a determined McDonald continued to work on his skills and team play, which proved to be more valuable achievements than wearing provincial team jerseys.
Playing for head coach Kim Mathieu at St. Mother Teresa Catholic High School for three of her four interscholastic years, McDonald made the starting lineup as a Grade 9 student-athlete. Her drive and polished skills put her in the starting five.
After sitting out her Grade 12 senior year because the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the high school sports scene, she had minor doubts if basketball would return to her life routine. But when she enrolled at Algonquin College as a business administration student in 2021, she reconnected with basketball and excelled as an individual player and as a teammate.
In a short time, the business administration graduate will soon complete a year of study in project management. She’ll walk off the court as one of the greatest players in the Algonquin College Wolves women’s basketball program, which has won the OCAA regular-season pennant for the past three seasons with identical 14-0 win-loss records.
Read More: HIGH ACHIEVERS: Algonquin perfect for third OCAA women’s basketball regular season in a row
“I didn’t make the (Ontario) team. I was self conscious where I would go after that,” recalled McDonald in a phone interview this week.
“But my awards prove that I didn’t have to go to Team Ontario or prep schools to be successful in my basketball career. I’m proud of that and that a club player can be as good as a prep player.”
On the eve of the Wolves’ women’s basketball quarterfinal Saturday at home against the defending OCAA champion Lambton College Lions, the conference announced its 2024-25 award winners. McDonald’s name was once again scattered through the honour role along with many teammates, who inspired McDonald and vice versa.
A fourth-year all-around guard, McDonald was selected the East Division player of the year, defensive player of the year, a first-team all-star and a Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association All-Canadian for the third consecutive season.
She also was the backbone of the Wolves winning their divisional title and being selected the top defensive squad. McDonald was equally proud of her teammates’ achievements – Cianah Miller, OCAA East first-team all-star; Libby Hirst and Sydney Moore, OCAA East second-team all-stars; and Paige Foster and Anna Hirst, OCAA East all-rookie team.
“I’m really proud of myself as to how I stayed consistent as a player,” McDonald added, “and to have others recognize me. My work has paid off. But as much as I love individual awards, I care more about winning.”
And winning started with seven-year head coach Jaime McLean, who McDonald has known since she was a young club player.
“It’s Jaime’s recruiting style,” McDonald said about the team’s success and the Wolves’ 79-4 regular-season record over the past six seasons as well as OCAA silver and bronze medals at the respective 2024 and 2023 provincial championship tournaments.
“He looks for good players who will fit into our team culture. He wants players who care for each other and bring positive energy into who we are. Whoever comes is not just a good player, but a good person.”
McDonald had her eye on attending Algonquin College and playing for the women’s basketball team for many years. She got to know McLean because her father worked with him in the Blue Devils’ basketball community, but she never played for one of his teams.
As she progressed through high school, McLean would reach out to McDonald to talk about Algonquin basketball. McLean is keen on recruiting players from Ottawa and the surrounding region and McDonald felt the school was a good all-around fit for her.
As a member of the Blue Devils, she adapted to being the youngest on the team and became a prominent player because of her constant skill development and determination. At St. Mother Teresa, she was a starter as a Grade 9 student on the girls’ senior team, which qualified for the 2017 OFSAA provincial championship that season and returned to the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association final the next season.
By the time she was in Grade 12, the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down all high school sports and she was relegated to practising on her own, maintaining her fitness and finding different ways to enjoy her free time. She certainly enjoyed her time away from basketball and that caused her to reflect on her future as a player.
But when she enrolled at Algonquin College, the feeling of being a basketball player quickly returned and she was a valuable member of the Wolves right from the start. She played and started 48 regular-season games and averaged 15.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 4.9 steals a game as well as posting a 51.1-per-cent shooting average.
For her senior year, McDonald wanted to improve her shooting and raise the intensity of her on-court effort. Her statistics reflected mission accomplished.
She posted a career-best field-goal shooting average of 55.1 per cent and a 40 per cent average from beyond the three-point arc. She recorded a best-ever 4.7-assist-per-game average and one of her best averages for steals at 4.6 per game.
On a Wolves team with plenty of strong shooters, McDonald led the pack with a career-best 230 points in 14 games for a 16.4-point-per-game average. Algonquin averaged 74.1 points on offence, while allowing only 38.6 points on defence.
“I feel I’m very versatile, but my main focus is defence,” she said. “On our whole team, everyone can score. I don’t have to be the one to score, which allows me to focus on defence.”
As the Wolves’ season narrows to must-win games at the OCAA level and the possibility of a CCAA national championship tournament berth, McDonald knows the end is near for her college career.
“It’s bittersweet. As much as I’m glad to move on, I’ll miss these girls,” McDonald asserted. “We’re losing 11 players from this team. It’s nice to see everyone grow up, but I’ll miss seeing them every day. At the end of the day, this is best for everyone.”
Can the Wolves complete their OCAA countdown to a gold medal, which would be the program’s seventh since OCAA women’s basketball started in 1967-68 and the first since a magical run of four consecutive titles from 2011 through 2014?
The Wolves were fourth in 2022, bronze medallists in 2023 and silver medallists in 2024. Could 2025 be golden?
When McDonald signs off on her college career with Algonquin, she wants to explore the possibility of playing professional basketball overseas.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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