Memorial Sea-Hawks fifth-year guard Haille Nickerson has quickly become somewhat of an enigma for opposing Atlantic University Sport women's basketball teams this season, something that suits the rebuilding Sea-Hawks just fine as Memorial works toward earning a second straight berth in the conference championship game.
“It’s funny,” said Sea-Hawks head coach Mark English, “but when I talk to the coaches in our league, they’re quite literally laughing — not in a comedic way — but in the sense that, ‘we don’t know how to guard Haille’ because she makes so many tough shots around the rim.”
Nickerson, the 22-year-old product of Grimsby, Ont., was certainly the topic of plenty of chatter around the Atlantic University Sport conference this week following her 42-point effort in a 93-80 win over Cape Breton University last Sunday, capping a sweep of the Capers in Sydney, N.S., and improving the Sea-Hawks to 3-1 on the year.
The 42 points set a new program record for Memorial women’s basketball, eclipsing the previous record of 38 registered by multi-time all-star Jenine Browne, who did it twice.
“Her shooting wasn’t great when she first came in,” said English of the five-foot-seven Nickerson, “but her work ethic paid off.
“Her biggest strength when she came here was her work ethic, but she’s just developed her game since then. She’s our fittest kid in terms of conditioning … it’s the story of someone who’s put the work in and it’s paying off. Evan Constantine (Memorial’s strength and conditioning coach) says she’s the hardest worker he’s ever had in the weight room.”
This is a somewhat of a rebuilding year for the Sea-Hawks, who lost four players – all-stars Sydney Stewart and Sydney Ezekiel, Brooklyn Wright and Rosie Stanoev – to graduation.
That Nickerson has stepped up into a starting role, and is now a go-to player on Memorial shouldn’t be surprising.
“Her biggest strength when she came here was her work ethic, but she’s just developed her game since then. She’s our fittest kid in terms of conditioning … it’s the story of someone who’s put the work in and it’s paying off.”
Memorial head coach Mark English on guard Haille Nickerson
Since arriving at MUN, her trajectory has been moving steadily and consistently upwards, from her 6.8 minutes on the court as a rookie in 2015-16 to the 32 so far this season, and the 1.7 points per game her first year to her average of 24.8 a game this season, second in the AUS behind Acadia’s Jayda Veinot.
“I had a trainer at home who really instilled the value of hard work in me since high school,” she said. “I enjoy putting in the work, knowing that good results can come of that.”
Nickerson’s ‘Ah-ha!’ moment in the AUS actually came during her third season, in Halifax during a game against the Dalhousie Tigers.
Memorial was without its star player, Stewart, who was sitting with an ankle injury suffered the previous night. So English “challenged” a couple of players to step up in place of Stewart.
Nickerson answered the call, draining a season-and career-high 25 points as the Sea-Hawks beat the Tigers to salvage a split.
“And she’s gotten better ever since,” he said. “This year, she’s one of the best guards in league, no question.”
English recruited Nickerson through a contact he had in Ontario, whilst the Branch native and Fatima High product was coaching at Thunder Bay’s Lakehead University.
In 2014, English took over the University of Prince Edward Island women’s program, and enticed Nickerson to join him at that school.
“I loved P.E.I.,” she said. “It felt like home because it was so small. It felt like my high school. I was real excited.”
Then, in June, just a couple of months before heading off to Charlottetown, English reached out to Nickerson again.
He’d just taken the head coaching job with Memorial in his native province, and he wanted the Ontario kid to join him in Newfoundland.
“I knew nothing about Newfoundland, never heard of Memorial,” she said. “But I went on a recruiting trip in July, and I loved it. I love this place. The best decision I ever made was coming here.”
Last spring, the Sea-Hawks made a lot of noise in the AUS playoffs (despite going 9-11 in the regular season), upsetting first-place Cape Breton in the semifinals. That came on the heels of a first-round upset over 12-8 UNB.
In the 2019-19 championship final, Memorial lost to the Acadia Axewomen who will provide the opposition in two home games this weekend, 6 p.m. today and noon Sunday at the Field House in St. John’s.
Even though Memorial has lost several key ingredients from last season’s team, Nickerson remains confident the Sea-Hawks will soar again in the playoffs.
“We have a great team chemistry,” she said. “We play well together.
“To be honest, I think we could prove a lot of people wrong this year. We have a really good team. We have a chance to do very well.”
No doubt, especially if the Sea-Hawks’ No. 23 keeps knocking down shots from everywhere.
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor
He can be reached by email at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter @TelyRobinShort
