SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda’s African Message) - Cameroon fans knew little about Brittany Starling when the country’s basketball federation invited her to represent the Central Africans at the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT) last June in Nantes, France.

In fact, half of the team was unknown to Cameroonians back home, particularly because it was built around Ramses Lonlack, Priscilla Mbiandja and Marie-Ange Mfoula - a trio of players that helped Cameroon finish runners-up at AfroBasket Women 2015 in their capital city of Yaounde.

"I hope that I can actually take a trip some day and see the history and what exactly I am wearing in my chest." - Starling

Cameroon lost their two Group Phase games against Turkey and Argentina, and as a result missed out qualification for the Rio Olympics.

Yet, that didn’t prevent Startling from remaining positive about Cameroon’s future on the international stage.

The USA-born Starling, who filled Cameroon’s naturalised spot, believes things could be better when they take to the floor next year to defend or improve from their silver medal accomplished last year. 

“Honestly, I don’t think anything went wrong in Nantes,” the 1.82m center told me about Cameroon’s WOQT campaign.

But, the 22-year-old also pointed to Cameroon’s lack of international experience as a factor for the 0-2 mark. 

Starling led Cameroon with a team-high 6 rebounds per game at WOQT

“It took a little while for us to get used to each other’s style of play," she said.

"We competed hard, we fought hard together, and we grew together. Obviously, we didn’t have as much time as we wanted to prepare for the tournament but for the time we did, I think we did a really good job regardless.

"Personally, I’ve grown as a player and as a person. I am just honoured to have this experience. In the future, things are gonna go much better with Cameroon able to do some great things”

FIBA Africa is yet to confirm the stage and schedule for next year’s AfroBasket Women.

And although very little is known about the future of the team, Starling doesn't rule out a comeback.

She also confessed her admiration of the country that gave her an opportunity to play international basketball.

“I am not sure what things will look like in the future, hopefully, I will come back. I’ll be honoured if they ask me to come back. I’ll just continue to work hard in the meantime, hopefully, I can satisfy them. I am really excited about that. I have never been to Cameroon and I would love to. I hope that I can actually take a trip some day and see the history and what exactly I am wearing in my chest. They told me about it every day and I have seen pictures and stories, hopefully, I can do that.”

Prior to representing Cameroon in Nantes, Starling played and graduated in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Upstate South Carolina University.

Before embarking on a professional career in Belgium, Starling described her national team experience as a game-changer: “I hate that I couldn’t get the job done, but one thing I’ll say is that I know I did my all. Hopefully, those who brought us here can be proud of what we did.”

A terrific and very physical player, Starling averaged a team-high 6 points and added 8 points per contest. She looks to do a lot more than that at a professional level.

“I am a hustler and very physical kind of player. I am looking to bring that strong dominant force to my Belgium team, and hopefully do some great things over there too.”

Julio Chitunda
FIBA

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