Former hoops star says “bonjour” to the world of pro basketball
Hillary Klimowicz ’09 is living her dream of playing professional basketball. She’s just doing it in a different location than she ever imagined.
Hillary Klimowicz ’09 is living her dream of playing professional basketball. She’s just doing it in a different location than she ever imagined.
In July, Klimowicz, who won numerous individual accolades during her collegiate career and led the Lions to the Final Four in 2009, signed a one-year contract to play with Sdent-Nyon, a Switzerland-based team that competes in the EuroCup league. Although her new job required her to relocate to a country she had never visited and whose residents speak a language she does not, things are going well for the 6´3˝center. Through the first month of the season, she was averaging 30 minutes and 15 points per game for Sdent-Nyon.
We communicated with Klimowicz via e-mail in September, one week after she arrived in Nyon to begin practicing with her new team. It was the first time she had traveled outside the country, and she was still adapting to life in Switzerland.
“The locals speak French, a language that I knew two words of before coming over here,” Klimowicz wrote.
“My teammates take English in school, so they are helping me learn some new words and helpful phrases. My coach speaks pretty fluent English, although she speaks only French during practice and the games. Usually one of my teammates … translates the most important points that my coach is trying to make…. Other than that the people here are very friendly and I’m getting by all right with ‘bonjour.’”
Klimowicz said she grew up idolizing WNBA stars like Tina Thompson and Lisa Leslie, and had hoped to one day join them playing professionally in the United States. But when the offer to play in Europe came her way, it was too good to pass up. Still, she admitted that moving overseas wasn’t an easy decision to make.
“Naturally I was nervous about going to a new country without my family, friends, and teammates,” Klimowicz wrote. While weighing the pros and cons of playing in Switzerland, she “realized that there are always a million reasons not to do something, but all you need is one good reason to make the leap worthwhile. For me that reason was wanting to see if I could succeed as a professional basketball player.”
To do so meant getting back into playing shape after spending last season as the Lions’ assistant coach. So Klimowicz said she spent her summer shooting baskets, lifting weights, and working with professional trainers to improve her lateral movement and linear speed. She was also supposed to have two weeks of preseason practice time with her new team, but her working Visa got held up and caused her to arrive a week later than planned.
When she wrote in September, she and her teammates were in the midst of grueling two-a-day practice sessions and had just returned from scrimmages in France. Although her schedule was tight, she said she was hopeful that she would soon have some free time to explore her new home.
“Basketball has always been a ticket for me to experience different things,” Klimowicz wrote. “I was able to [see] the United States with my travel team growing up. Now, basketball is helping me to travel around Europe.”
Posted on October 26, 2010
