Friday 24 August 2007

Three More '07 CIS Grads to play in Europe; Guelph get late recruiting coup

Many thanks to those who emailed and commented about 3 other 2007 CIS graduates who will continue their playing careers in Europe as 6'4" Brandon Ellis (pictured - left), a slick shooting wing from UVic, 6'10" Jordan Foebel, a mainstay on the fine York front line over the past 5 years and 6'4" Brian Finniss, from Calgary, have started their professional careers. This brings to at least 7 the number of CIS grads from last season to sign European professional contracts. Ellis made an immediate impact in his first professional game last week with the Dusseldorf Magics, a Division 2 league team in Germany. After arriving in Germany last weekend, he was left out of his team's first game due to jet lag but dressed for the game nevertheless. But early in the second half, with the Magics losing, Ellis came off the bench and scored 21 points to lead Dusseldorf to the victory. Ellis went to high school at G.P. Vanier in Courtenay, B.C. He began his CIS career with the UBC Thunderbirds before transfering to the UVic Vikes. Foebel (pictured) joins USC Freiburg in the German Pro B league after a stellar career at York. dinosbasketball.com reports that Calgary grad Finniss, one of the Dinos co-captains last year, got the call from Citybasket Recklinghausen, the team in Germany for which Dino alumnus Chris Wright played last year. Former Dinos Wright and Chris Harris are just down the road playing for Hagen BBV. Finniss is a native of Summerside, P.E.I. who started his CIS career at Acadia before transfering to Calgary two seasons ago.

The Guelph Gryphons scored a late recruiting coup as 6'1" Omar Ibrahim, originally from Toronto Central Commerce who spent last season with the Eastern Commerce Prep program coached by Canadian Jr. National team coach Greg Francis, has committed to the Gryphons and is practicing with the team preparing for Guelph's set of weekend Labour Day games. Ibrahim is at least the third member of last season's Eastern Commerce Prep team to attend CIS schools joining 6'5" Cole Hobin (Carleton) and 6'2" Jacob Gibson-Bascombe (Ottawa). Ibrahim, a combination guard is described by Coach Chris O'Rourke as a player with a "big upside". Expect Ibrahim to contend for a spot in the Gryphs playing rotation almost immediately.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Robert Nortmann (Dalhousie) and Yoosrie Salhia (Lakehead) from Eastern Prep are also playing CIS