Training Camp Resumes For 2016 USA Basketball Women’s U17 World Championship Team
The 12 members of the 2016 USA Basketball Women’s U17 World Championship Team will return to the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for training camp June 8-14.
After practicing at 5 p.m. on June 8 (all times listed are MDT), the team will practice at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on June 9-10 and June 12-14. The team will train at 11 a.m. on June 11.
“We need to work on our defensive skills and clean up our offenses, just really get mentally tough and try and get after it defensively,” USA head coach Dori Oldaker (Mt. Lebanon H.S., Pa.) said of training camp.
The team departs on June 15 for the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship, which will be played June 22-July 2 in Zaragoza, Spain. Players eligible for this team must be U.S. citizens born on or after Jan. 1, 1999.
The team includes Janelle Bailey (Providence Day School/Matthews, N.C.); Jenna Brown (The Lovett School/Marietta, Ga.); Samantha Brunelle (William Monroe H.S./Ruckersville, Va.); Charli Collier (Barbers Hill H.S./Baytown, Texas); Aquira DeCosta (St. Mary's H.S./Stockton, Calif.); Maya Dodson (St. Francis H.S./Alpharetta, Ga.); Destanni Henderson (Fort Myers H.S./Fort Myers, Fla.); Taylor Mikesell (Jackson H.S./Massillon, Ohio); Olivia Nelson-Ododa (Winder-Barrow H.S./Winder, Ga.); Sedona Prince (Liberty Hill H.S./Liberty Hill, Texas); Abby Prohaska (Lakota West H.S./Liberty Township, Ohio); and Christyn Williams (Central Arkansas Christian School/Little Rock, Ark.).
Oldaker will be assisted by Dianne Lewis of Thomas Edison High School in Virginia and Samantha Quigley, who is the head mentor at the University of St. Francis (NAIA).
2016 FIBA U17 Championship
The 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship with feature 16 national teams that qualified from FIBA’s five geographic zones. From FIBA Americas will be Canada (gold medalist), Brazil (silver medalist), USA (bronze medalist) and Mexico (fourth place). Mali (gold medalist) and Nigeria (Silver medalist) will represent FIBA Africa. China (gold medalist), Japan (silver medalist) and South Korea (bronze medalist) qualified from FIBA Asia. From FIBA Europe will be host country Spain, as well as Czech Republic (gold medalist), Portugal (silver medalist), Italy (bronze medalist), France (fourth place) and Latvia (fifth place). Finally, from FIBA Oceania will be Australia (gold medalist).
After playing each of the teams in its preliminary round group (which will be determined on March 15), the top three ranked teams from each preliminary round group will advance to the round of 16, and the fourth-placed teams will compete for 12th-16th places. The semifinals will be played on July 1, and the finals will be on July 2.
The USA owns three gold medals and is a perfect 20-0 all-time in U17 play, including most recently in 2014, when the USA topped teams by 37.0 points per game.
The list of players who have competed for USA U17 national teams includes: Lindsay Allen (2012), Diamond DeShields (2012), Asia Durr (2014), Rebecca Greenwell (2012), Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (2010), Ariel Massengale (2010), Arike Ogunbowale (2014), Mercedes Russell (2012), Katie Lou Samuelson (2014), Breanna Stewart (2010) and Elizabeth Williams (2010).
