Team Ontario Basketball announced its roster for the upcoming 2022 Canadian Basketball National Championships.
The Town will be represented very well on both the men's and women's sides as Oakville natives Taeya Steinauer, and potentially Spencer Ahrens will play on the U-17 team.
Taeya is a guard and currently attends Lincoln Prep Basketball school in Hamilton.
The school is a high-performance academic and basketball-oriented school for top-tier Basketball student-athletes in Canada.
Last season, Taeya played in four regular season games for Lincoln, where she averaged six points per game, ten field goals made, and a field goal percentage of 40.
Taeya will look to have an even bigger year next year as she moves into a more significant role with the team in her grade 11 year.
Taeya’s family is also no stranger to athletics, as her older sister Rheya is also a basketball player. She recently graduated from Lincoln this season and has committed to playing at Southern Connecticut University next fall in their Division 2 Basketball program.
Taeya’s father, Orlando, is probably the most notable of the family. He is currently the Head Coach of the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Recently inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame, Orlando played 12 years in the league, splitting his time with the Ottawa Rough Riders, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and the Toronto Argonauts.
Next on the U-17 Men’s team is Oakville's Spencer Ahrens. Spencer is a 6” 8 Forward from PEDSDMD Elite Basketball school.
This school is a prep basketball program that is run out of St. Martin Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga.
Though Spencer was chosen for the U-17 team, he tested positive for COVID-19 last week and may or may not get a chance to play in this tournament.
Spencer is keeping his spirits up through this window of uncertainty but hopes to be able to join his team at some point during the tournament.
Spencer has been looked at by Division 1 schools in the United States.
Spencer was given an offer by the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) to join their school and basketball program.
Though the offer is extremely generous, Spencer is keeping his options open, saying, "We’ll see because I’m only in grade 10 right now. Usually, players commit at the end of grade 12, or if you take the fifth year, you commit around there. Hopefully, there will be more to come, but that's definitely an option."
This is an incredible accomplishment for both of these young athletes. Both tournaments will run from August 1-6, with the women’s tournament in Sherbrooke, QC and the Men’s in Edmonton, AB.