Efforts pay off in sports

By Julia Vellucci
Humber Athletics Communication

Hope Manglal-Ian started playing basketball in grade nine which was later than most and is now a shooting guard for the Humber women's basketball team after fighting for her spot on the team.

"Humber didn't want me. In the current club I was playing in basketball I was always complaining to them that I was not getting any offers from that school and thought maybe it's not meant to be," Manglal-lan said.

"You can either go to open tryout or get recruited. I was hoping to get recruited. I wasn't. Usually, when you go to an open tryout it's very unlikely that you make the team, but it's not like there's a zero per cent chance," she said.

Manglal-lan wanted to be on the Humber Hawks and wanted them to focus on her talent which she was able to do by talking to a few people, asking for a showcase for herself and showing up to one of their practices.

"They were interested and gave me an offer on a scholarship. So before that, if I never asked and if I never was like inquiring about these kinds of things, I probably wouldn't be on Humber's team," she said.

"Humber is definitely part of my journey. It's a really big part of my process. When I was picking schools to go into my first year of college there was a lot of really good offers that I got in Ontario but Humber really stuck out to me," Manglal-lan said.

"I really wanted to go to Humber because I love their program, they have a very admirable history, they're very credible, they have very great coaches and it just seems like they're very nice people," she said.

Manglal-lan had been at training camps at Humber many times and described Humber's morals and values to be what could help her both become a better player and a better person.

"My overall goal or what I want to do with basketball is that as much as I do love playing the game and I love just being active, I do love the impact that basketball has on other people," she said.

"I hope to help other people through basketball. But first I feel like I need to develop myself a lot as a person, as a player, and I feel like Humber definitely does that for me within these next like four years or so," Manglal-lan said.

Apart from the Humber Hawks, she did junior NBA, which is where she represented Canada when she was in grade eight at the time and represented the Philippines for the National Women's Under-18 Team in a FIBA championship, winning bronze last year.

Manglal-lan is currently in her first year of Humber's Business Administration program as her family has always been very business oriented and she excelled in business in high school.

"I'm very open as to what I want my future to be like. Maybe I want to be more business-oriented, but then I was thinking my future with sports, it all depends on how I feel after I graduate," she said.

"In athletics or in academics, everyone has their own time to do things and I don't think anyone should rush their journey," Manglal-lan said.

"Don't rush it, don't compare yourself to others. Just do what you think is right and how you want to complete your journey and how you want to take your journey. It's your journey on your time," she said.