Trivieri’s hoops career nears conclusion
Alex Trivieri will play her final two regular-season games for the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team this weekend. Photos courtesy of Valerie Wutti.
An important chapter in Alex Trivieri’s life is rapidly coming to a conclusion.
The 21-year-old St. Catharines native will play her final two regular season games for the Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team this weekend when her team hosts Nipissing Friday and Laurentian Saturday.
“Just because I have played basketball my entire life, it’s going to be a little bittersweet, but I am kind of ready for it,” the Holy Cross alumnus said. “A couple of others are also graduating, one fifth year and one fourth year, and we’ve grown up together at Carleton.”
As part of Saturday’s game, Carleton will honour Trivieri and the other graduates. The 5-foot-5 guard is confident she will be able to get through the night without crying.
Her father, John, might not be as lucky. He will be attending the game along with Alex’s mom, Roseanne, and brother, John.
“I’m sure my dad will be, especially when it comes to basketball,” Alex said. “It will be even more bittersweet for him because he was my coach since I was four and it is going to be the end.”
The law major is a much different player than the one that arrived at Carleton in the fall of 2015.
“I’ve grown in multiple ways and I understand the game way better than I did before, but I’ve also grown in learning time management skills and skills off the court just from having such a heavy schedule all four years,” she said. “I’ve learned to become a real competent scheduler and it has helped me keep on track with school and other things in my life.”
She has also grown as a person.
“Basketball has taught me more lessons as a person than just physically understanding the game and playing the game,” the three-time Academic All-Canadian said. “It’s because of the amount of time and commitment we put in towards playing.
“We have to manage our time strategically to make sure our grades are high enough that we are still eligible to play.”
Hoops has also helped her develop many interpersonal skills.
“It’s learning how to play as a team,” she said. “You are with the same people all of the time, whether it’s on bus trip in hotels or in the change room.
“You learn a lot about different people and personalities and how to fit with a bunch of different people.”
Trivieri, who is averaging 3.9 points and 15.5 minutes of playing time per game this season, points to winning the national championship last season as the high point of her career.
“That was a huge moment in my life,” she said. “The year before we got the bronze medal at nationals and we kept the exact same team. We had that goal in mind to come back and we knew that we could win.”
Trivieri is also proud of her Academic All-Canadian status.
“Grades were always really important to me and my career goal was to go to law school and become a lawyer,” she said. “I had to keep that in mind if I wanted to continue playing basketball and Carleton does a good job of providing their athletes with good study habits with study halls and tutors.”
She has already been accepted into law school, but hasn’t decided which offer of admission she will accept.
“I am proud that I got in,” she said.
This season, the Ravens sit in third place in Ontario University Athletics’ East with a 16-5 record and will clinch third seed in the playoffs with two wins this weekend.
“We will play some pretty good teams early on (in the playoffs) and that will be good for us,” she said. “We normally play better against better teams and, if we stick to our game plan, we have a good chance of getting to nationals again this year.”
The team has lofty ambitions.
“Our goal is to win nationals, but we are taking it game by game and getting through the (OUA) playoffs first before thinking long term,” she said.
