2011 NM Rising Sports Stars!

Megan Craig   www.ualbanysports.com 

Megan Craig (Feb.1993) - 17 years old. Megan is the daughter of Alan Craig and Linda (Barnes/Wynyard) Craig. Her grandmother is Milly (Wynyard) Barnes who resides with the Craig Family, Otaika Valley, Whangarei. Nanna Milly was born and lived her childhood in the Ngati Manu Valley, Karetu - at the (Tahu & Meretini) Wynyard Papakainga, on the "Family Hill".

Megan was a Junior Female Sportsperson nominee at the 2010 Ngapuhi Maori Sports Awards held March at Northland College, Kaikohe and attended the event with her parents Alan and Linda. There were 2 other Ngati Manu nominations in Senior Male catergory, cousin Paul Davis and Uncle Jason Wynyard. Megan enjoys returning home to Ngati Manu Marae to catch up with her Wynyard cousins from Palmerston North, Whangarei and Northland.

Megan flew with her parents, to the States in early November to visit the Albany University who were offering Megan a full basketball scholarship. In January this year Megan flew through to New York with her "other parents' Josie Cope and Willy John Reihana-Ruka, on her way back o the University to start her studies. Her scholarship is for 4 and a half years.

She will have a summer break (May-Aug) and will start playing competitively in November. Megan is in training to be in top physical condition to realise her sporting aspirations and face the game challenges against, and alongside, Americans for the first time in November. Albany University is approximately 2 hours north of New York City. There is an added bonus with her cousin Nicola who lives in New York.

Megan's parents Alan and Linda shall be travelling to Albany University, USA - to support Megan's inaugural competition games in November this year.

 *** We wish Megan all the very best and huge success in the Top American Sporting Arena of Basketball ***

A big woman on campus at home a world away

“But as I grew older and started playing basketball, I started meeting taller people, meeting people who told me that my height was a gift and to embrace it … and to use what you got.” 

At a listed 6-foot-9 — she says she might be a hair shorter — the New Zealander finds herself now at the University at Albany. When the redshirt freshman who arrived in January takes the court as expected next season, she will be one of the tallest female players in college basketball.Craig is here because first-year UAlbany coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, previously an Indiana assistant, called one of the contacts she developed in the year she played pro ball in New Zealand. A coach named Leonard King tipped her off to the member of New Zealand’s national teams. Craig would go on to earn high school basketball Sportswoman of the Year honors after averaging 20 points, 15 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game last season. (And to answer the obvious question: She can grab the rim but can’t dunk.)

Although the player and coach had been in contact for more than a year, Abrahamson-Henderson and Craig never met until her campus visit last November. All the coach had seen of Craig’s game had been tape.

It was enough.“I didn’t have to watch very much,” the coach said. “The way she ran the floor and the way she is very coordinated, I was like `whoa’.”

Basketball, more than Craig’s former game, netball — a sport that is akin to basketball, but much more regimented — provides a refuge of sorts for taller people. (Craig, who started playing hoops five-plus years ago, also competed in discus and shot put, but never rugby — her 6-foot-6 dad’s sport.) But now she once again is different than everyone else, in a place where compared to her native New Zealand summer is winter, today is still tomorrow and her native language often seems foreign coming from Americans.

No matter what, Megan (pronounced ME-gan) Craig will always stand out. When you are a woman this tall, people will notice and gawk and ask the same questions over and over.

The ones about “the weather up there” are tiresome. She was amused when asked if she could play miniature golf. And she constantly gets “Do you play basketball?” There are times Craig wants to respond “Can’t you see I’m actually wearing my basketball uniform?”

“Usually I try not to be `Grrrrrrr,’ but sometimes it’s hard.”

But here in Albany, well … they still do that. It’s just different, kinder.“

People (here) are a lot more used to the fact that there are tall people, so I’m not that much of a phenomenon,” Craig said. “I love being here because I feel like I fit in a lot more than I did at home.”

Craig said she can normally find clothes at stores, although she often has to “compromise” on either length or width. She gets her fancy shoes online, but is comfortable in Nikes and Chuck Taylors — although not so much window seats on buses and planes. She’s grateful for the extra-long bed in her UAlbany dorm, but is adept at sleeping anywhere. “I can curl myself into a little ball and be perfect.”

In the place of that girl who tried to shrink into herself is a woman on the cusp of 18 who stands, well, tall. Except when talking about the weather: Winter in her native Whangarei two hours north of Auckland is still flip-flops weather. She hunches over and crosses her arms at the thought of another two months of Upstate snow.

With the school year in New Zealand ending in December (remember, winter here is summer in the Southern Hemisphere), Craig was able to enter UAlbany early and get a head start on acclimating herself to a different culture and terms (soda, not fizzy drink) and the speed of the game. It didn’t take long for the Kiwi to feel comfortable. “I feel at home,” she said, “with other tall people who know exactly what I’m going through.”

Keyana Williams knows the feeling. At 6-foot-2 the sophomore along with freshman Sara Bender were the tallest players on the Great Danes roster. “It’s actually nice to have somebody up there with me,” she said.

Craig is unfailingly soft-spoken. In fact, it’s one of the things she has to work on in her game — becoming more vocal. She said sometimes people have initial misconceptions about who she really is as a person.“I seem intimidating. I’m actually a really shy person,” she said. “Once I get to know someone I will be really talkative. I’m not a scary person. I have many friends.”

But Craig said she brings an intensity to the court that she doesn’t display off.“

I had a game where my nickname was `Little Miss Mean’,” she said. “I was in a tournament, and a girl went to steal the ball from me. So I swung the ball up high and I swung it across my body. And apparently — I didn’t see this — this girl left the ball and went flying across the other side of the court.“

I did feel bad about her, but my coach said no. … I didn’t mean to do it, but I guess it was good.”

She hunched over and chuckled quietly at the memory. Soon enough she was sitting up straight and tall again.

UAlbany Women's Basketball Signs Four to National Letters of Intent for 2011-12 

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information      Release: 01/19/2011 (19th January)