US college basketball’s top tier beckons for Hongkonger Chan after New York move

Hong Kong starlet Yannie Chan Yan-man said that she wanted to challenge herself at college basketball’s highest level after deciding to switch between US universities last month to join Iona.

Leaving Emmanuel College in Boston after three full years, the fourth-year student will be playing Division I women’s basketball for the first time in her NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) career. The highest echelon of college basketball in the United States, its 68 teams contest the national championship.

“When I was playing in the summer league in the US, I was playing with a lot of Division I players, and they believed I should try to challenge myself,” the Hongkonger said.

“My [left knee] injury earlier this year gave me more time to think about my future. I want to challenge myself in a new environment. I am also motivated by the desire to prove even a Hong Kong girl can play at the highest level.”

Chan was offered full scholarships by Marist College and Iona, both in New York, and the 22-year-old picked the latter after paying a visit to New Rochelle.

“I enjoyed my time with the team [during the visit], and I liked the head coach [Angelika Szumilo] very much,” Chan said. “She comes from Poland, and I thought I could learn a European style of basketball from her, too.”

Majoring in sports management at Emmanuel, Chan must switch to business administration to continue her studies at Iona.

“I could transfer over 90 per cent of my credits, so I will get my degree after one more year,” she said. “They would provide me with an MBA [Master of Business Administration] after the second year. I intend to focus more on marketing.

“Women’s players, even professionals, may not be able to earn a lot of stable income still, so I think both playing and studying is important, and this is a balanced decision for me.”

Named last year’s women’s player of the year in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in a vote by the league’s 13 head coaches, Chan admitted that she dreamed of playing against University of Connecticut’s star point guard Paige Bueckers, who is tipped to be one of the top picks in next year’s WNBA draft.

With the Iona Gaels and the UConn Huskies playing in different conferences, reaching March Madness is the only hope of achieving that for Chan, and it would be a challenge for her new team, who finished ninth in the 11-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference standings.

“First things first, I need to adapt to Division 1 basketball as soon as possible,” the Heep Yunn School graduate said. “The intensity will be stronger, and the season duration is much longer, too.

“I might be new on the team, but I am one of the more experienced players, so the head coach wants me to take up the leadership role. I hope to learn and improve as a leader, and I can lead my team into the NCAA tournament.”