Inferno small bannerKrempien wheels into Gold Cup
(taken from the December 10, 2005 St. Albert Gazette)
By Jeff Hansen
Staff Writer		    

Questions were answered by the Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team at the Tournament of the Americas.Jennifer Krempien

“Overall it was a good experience. Our confidence is back. We know we can compete with the United States,” said Jennifer Krempien of St. Albert.

The qualifier for the 2006 Gold Cup in Amsterdam marked the first court clash between the rival countries since the 2004 Paralympic Games in Greece. The United States knocked off the defending three-time Paralympic gold medallists 57-49 in the semifinals. Canada regrouped to beat Germany for the bronze. The United States won gold against Australia.

“We were certainly out-matched in Athens. It was a real good motivator to get ready for this tournament.” said Krempien, a national team veteran of four Paralympic Games and three Gold Cup world championships.

“We really committed ourselves individually and collectively to improve. We’re on the same page now.”

The Gold Cup favourites battled twice at last week’s tournament at Colorado Springs. It was 48-46 Canada in the four-team round robin and 61-59 United States in the final.

“There were a million lead changes back and forth throughout both games between two evenly matched teams that are hopefully going to meet in the final for the world championship,” said Tim Frick, head coach for Team Canada. “It’s going to be a see-saw battle every time we play those guys.”

Jennifer KrempienKrempien, 30, described the loss as disappointing, despite the strong showing by Canada.

“In the final we had a slight lead (43-39 after three quarters), but then we had a few tactical errors and we missed some shots.”

 The third quarter featured seven lead changes and eight ties. With the game knotted at 55-all, the United States capitalized on a couple of defensive breakdowns with two quick baskets. Canada ended up shooting 42 per cent and United States shot 43 per cent. The difference was foul shots. The United States scored 10 points from the line on 20 opportunities. Canada was 4-for-7.

“Neither team was really willing to let the other team go on any kind of a run,” Frick said. “We got some really good open shots earlier on in the game and then we missed a few and that’s probably because we were a bit tired after two weeks of training.”

The event marked the national team’s first session together since early August. The summer camp in Toronto included wins against Germany and Australia.

“Pretty much the whole tournament in Colorado Springs was a thinking game, not a playing game,” Krempien said. “Leading up to the tournament we worked on strategies to break down the United States’ defence. We definitely made steps in the right direction by scoring 59 points against a very good team, with many open looks that just didn’t fall for us.”

Canada also defeated Mexico 59-46 and Brazil twice: 65-22 and in a 66-14 blowout.

“Overall it wasn’t spectacular but it was a solid performance by the team. It was pretty consistent, “Frick said.
“We had just gone through 15 days of two practices a day, plus meetings and everything else. The only day off for the players was the travel day, when they had to get up at three in the morning and go to the airport and then fly down to Colorado Springs. When you take all that into account we didn’t play that bad. At the next major event that we’re trying to peak for we’ll play a little bit better.”

Canada and the United States basically used the same lineups they had at the Paralympics. Danielle Peers of Edmonton, a former high school hoopster with the Paul Kane Blues in the mid-1990s, was one of Canada’s top scorers. Her brother, Jamie Peers, served as an assistant coach. The former Lady Blues’ head coach is also the technical director for the St. Albert SLAM Basketball Club.

“The same key players for the States are still their key players. Their kids coming off the bench are good solid players. They probably have a stronger bench than they had in Athens,” Frick said.

Mexico will join the United States and Canada at the Gold Cup.

“Teams don’t change that much after the Gold Cup,” said Krempien, an all-star selection at guard at the 1998 and 2002 Gold Cups. “In terms of intensity and skill the Gold Cup is the same as the Paralympics.” The recent world rankings are based on the 2004 Paralympics. “We’re officially ranked third but nobody really believes that,” Krempien said.

Canada and the United States are the world powers in the sport of wheelchair basketball.

“In terms of Germany and Australia we’ve managed to maintain our edge against them. They’ve improved, but obviously so have we,” Frick said.

“It is a bit different against the States. They have four-year NCAA scholarships for wheelchair basketball. There’s about seven or eight schools that offer that, so basically all their players from an early age are getting the practice at the college level just about every day. Unfortunately we don’t quite have that system up here. They have the advantage in that they’ve been able to actually train together more. I think almost the entire U.S. team trained at the University of Illinois with our men’s coach for about four years prior to Athens. That was a huge advantage for them. We just can’t do that. We can’t centralize the training given our system. That’s why we didn't take a day off in those two weeks. It’s such a rare occasion that we get together. We took every advantage of that opportunity and it paid off because tactically, if you look at the Xs and Os, we actually took them apart a little bit better than we had in the past.”

When asked to evaluate her play in the tournament, Krempien gave herself a passing grade.

“It was fairly consistent, but it certainly wasn’t my best performance ever.”

Frick provided the following scouting report on Krempien.

“Jen struggled a bit offensively. Actually everyone did because we’ve been taking some of our shooting techniques and trying to refine them. We did a bunch of video analysis of their shooting and because we chose to kind of train through this event everyone's shooting was a little bit off just because they were thinking a bit too much. Once they get those changes automatic then they should be better,” he said.

“As always, Jen did a spectacular job defensively. She really anchors the team’s defence. She also did a pretty nice job of managing the basketball this time around.  She made good passes and was really surehanded with the ball.

“The last thing she did that was really huge was her communication. It’s usually good but this time it was excellent. That really helps at both ends of the court”.

Away from the gym the Paul Kane High School alumnus is currently working on her masters of science in human nutrition at the University of British Columbia. Her thesis project is studying the nutrition intakes of elite Canadian athlete with a spinal cord injury. Her spinal cord injury was caused by falling off a picnic table at the age of five.

She is a cinch to suit up for Canada at her fifth Paralympics in 2008 in Beijing, China

“She’s really had a heck of a run and it’s not over yet,” Frick said.
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