By Scott Lepp
Women’s basketball Head Coach Shawnee Harle and all the legions of Dino fans have to hear some bad news. At the age of 22 and after two years playing for the University of Calgary and four years of ball in total, Rena Carriere has decided to end her post-secondary career a year early.
Coach Harle is definitely going to miss the grit and hustle that Carriere brought every single day.
"She brings a maturity," said Harle. "In practice you could always count on Rena to work her butt off. She never saved herself for the next drill or for conditioning at the end of practice."
Just like any other player who ends their athletic career, Carriere thinks what she’ll miss the most is "the friendships [and] hanging out with all the girls."
Natalie Hudec was a teammate of Carriere for two years and is going to miss Rena for both her personality and her basketball talent.
"Her character is amazing. She’s honest [and] easy-going. She’ll do whatever she can to help the team," said Hudec. "And she can always be counted on to make threes."
Carriere started her hoops career here in Calgary where she was born, raised and attended St. Francis High School. Athletics seem to run in her family as her brother plays baseball for Eastern Oregon University and her sister competes in fastball with the hometown Calgary Renegades.
When asked what they were going to remember most about Carriere, both Harle and Hudec said, "her ability to hit the important three." This season, Carriere shot 30.8 per cent on 20-65 from beyond the arc and topped it off with the fewest turnovers per game of any Dino with 0.65.
Now Carriere no longer has to worry about defenders trying to stop her from posterizing them with three-point bombs. What comes in life after basketball?
"I’m going to come back and finish my degree in Kinesiology, and then pursue a job as a PE teacher."