Recap The Court

Photo: Arthur Ward/Arthur Images

Jacob Smith

Catherine Traer has done a lot throughout her life as an athlete, and the experiences have guided her through other aspects of life. From playing for two different schools at the collegiate level, overcoming injury and adversity to transition to a professional player while beginning life as a mother, the connection between sport and life has blended together in ways that are put into perspective once looked back on. Starting with family and the togetherness of being an athlete.

Sisterhood

Catherine’s four years at Ottawa started with a nationals appearance and ended with a nationals appearance. As the Gee-Gees went from 16-4 and third in the OUA in her first year, to a couple years with 14 wins and a 17-2 OUA silver medal season the year before she’d transfer to Carleton, Catherine was apart of a culture of togetherness and sisterhood between players who may have been at different points of their collegiate career, but all focused on bringing themselves and their teammates up.

“OttawaU was always known as a transfer school for graduate students and teachers college, so we always had one or two veterans who were a bit older but it never really felt that way with how close we were,” Catherine said of the culture of the Gee-Gees throughout her career.

From celebrating wins to trying to figure out what went wrong in losses, a team is there through everything with each other. Through road trips to weekly games at home with practices and team meetings, a team is with each other for many hours a week, and that can form bonds that will never be broken.

As the Gee-Gees went year by year trying to get over the hump in the OUA, Catherine grew her skills as a basketball player, and gained some lifelong friends. Julia Dostaler, Kellie Ring and Julia Soriano all played with Catherine at the University of Ottawa. Julia Soriano came in to the Gee-Gees alongside Catherine with Kellie already in second year, and Julia Dostaler joining for Catherine’s third year and beyond.

Photo: U SPORTS

As the group of four played more and more minutes together, Traer, Soriano and Ring each playing over 28 minutes a game and leading the Gee-Gees in scoring in 2016-17, Catherine’s final year at Ottawa, they became closer and closer and their connection off the court became as close as their connection on the court.

Years after being teammates on the Gee-Gees women’s basketball team, Kellie Ring, Julia Dostaler and Julia Soriano were bridesmaids at Catherine’s wedding. From years playing together spanning their journey to and away from the University of Ottawa, to experiences on and off the court and a connection tightened through sport, some of Catherine’s best friends today, shared her time at the Gee-Gees, and made the sisterhood that much more special.

Resilience

Catherine’s time with the University of Ottawa didn’t come without roadblocks, both from a team perspective trying to find improvement year after year, but also from a personal perspective with injury and trying to come back stronger year after year.

After Catherine’s rookie year which saw the team get third in the OUA and play in the CIS Final 8 tournament with Catherine getting awarded OUA East All-Rookie, she had a lot of momentum building towards a strong year two. As the 2013-2014 season was coming around, the Gee-Gees were building with a rather young squad, and with players like Maddie Stephen who would earn OUA East Defensive Player of the Year and OUA East First Team All-Star, alongside Kellie Ring who was a first team all-star the year before, they had all the pieces to put together a great run.

11 games into the season, with the Gee-Gees sitting at a 8-3 record, Catherine broke her hand during a game against the Toronto Varsity Blues playing just 12 minutes and shifting her course from a season that saw her improving in many categories, to the road of rehabilitation and getting back for the next season stronger.

As Catherine was getting back from her broken hand and getting ready for her third season, she tore her hip flexor in the preseason which put her back on the sideline and would cause her to miss a full season.

“Coming back for 2015 like I did was difficult, sitting out for a full year was difficult. I had a really hard year the year I sat out, my godfather was diagnosed with cancer and passed away that year. I was dealing with a lot of grief from that, from being away from basketball, not knowing who I was as a person” Catherine said of her time away during the 2014-2015 season.

Through seeing a psychologist, focusing on her research through a trip to Morocco, a trip to Europe, and a discovered love for hot yoga, she was able to handle her stress levels and mental health, which allowed her to focus on rehab and be in a better headspace. “I took some time off of basketball completely and rediscovered who I was as a person and other interests outside of the basketball world like my passion for humanitarian aid and international development…I also realized from that I really loved basketball and wanted to play again.”

As the 2014-15 year ended and the offseason started, Catherine’s body finally felt fully healed from the injuries, and she had reignited her desire to play basketball. Through her year away, new passions were discovered, her work reached new levels and what happened during 2014-15 would lead her to her next destination, but not without one last run with the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

Stepping outside of your comfort zone

Catherine recovered from her hand and hip flexor injury, and returned to the Gee-Gees to have her best year of her collegiate career, in her final season before finishing her undergrad. The 2015-2016 season for Catherine saw her average the most minutes of her career with 28.8, the most points with 16 and the second most rebounds with 4.9 per game. Pushing the Gee-Gees to a 17-2 record and a OUA silver medal, Catherine made a statement that her journey was far from over, but her undergrad coming to an end, the OUA second team all-star would need to find a new program to benefit from her skills.

That is where the research she stepped into during her year away rehabbing from injury came in to play, as her passion for humanitarian aid put her in a graduate program at Carleton University, just down the road from her previous home. Moving away from where she and her father Rick played their collegiate hoops, Catherine was stepping into a new environment, but bringing skills that would help push a team on the come up, over the edge and into championship caliber.

Photo: U SPORTS

Photo: U SPORTS

Carleton had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs the previous two years before Catherine’s arrival, with third year forward Heather Lindsay leading the team with 14.7 points and 10.7 rebounds in 2015 as Carleton finished 14-5 and second in the OUA East behind Ottawa. Coming into a team with just one rookie and a lot of upper year players, Catherine was coming into a team with experience ready to take the step over the hump, and that’s what she did in her two years at Carleton.

Catherine’s experience immediately put her into a leading role with the Ravens in 2016, averaging the second most minutes on the team. With that opportunity, Catherine lead the team in points per game and total steals, while finishing second in total blocks with 27. She was the added piece to the Ravens squad that put them over the edge, and 35 minutes played with nine points and seven rebounds in a 49-41 win over the Queen’s Gaels made Catherine an OUA Champion, putting her at the top of the mountain after an adjustment in cultures and environments.

Catherine had came to a new team with a new group of players after spending four years with some of her best friends, and she had immediately asserted herself amongst the league’s best, with the opportunity the following year to defend that reign and do something special that few do, go back-to-back.

She had gotten over the hump after being in contention for OUA championships throughout her time at Ottawa, but what she did in her final year cemented her legacy in U SPORTS and proved there was nothing she couldn’t adapt to if she wanted to.

The 2017-2018 Carleton Ravens need little explanation. The team that went completely undefeated, the Canadian basketball juggernaut putting their stamp on another year. The team was even more experienced than the year prior with the same core and only three rookies, they ran it back and they were untouchable in the OUA and victorious on the national stage. Wins over now TMU, Windsor and McMaster brought them their OUA championship and taking down Calgary, McGill and Saskatchewan made them the national champions. 23-0 and a championship to end Catherine’s time in U SPORTS proved her ability to come in and win, and spending four years in the same environment prior, made Catherine’s time at Carleton that much more impressive as she was able to enter a place she hadn’t spent time at, and immediately succeed.

Photo: U SPORTS

A year removed from her time at Carleton and the national championship, Catherine had just gotten married to Thomas Scrubb and had moved back from Europe to Canada to work in Global Affairs Canada. Watching the Canada 3×3 team enter to the 3×3 Women’s Series, she reached out to Paige Crozon about being a substitute, and through her defence and cutting ability she found her role in the 3×3 style and a love for a different style of basketball was born.

“It’s such a different sport than 5on5 is…it’s such a different atmosphere, you get to become so close to not just your own team but the other players as well.” After a period playing with Canada on the 3×3 series, Catherine showed her ability to step into new territory and find her place to belong and excel, just as she did transferring to Carleton from Ottawa.

Strength

The sport of basketball can be very demanding. Without needing to get into the daily routine of practices, workouts, meetings and games, just the travel alone can force players to uproot lives and adjust to new surroundings and lifestyles. For Catherine, once she was done playing varsity in the nations capital, the world opened up and the game took her to different parts of the world, all while adjusting to caring for the newest member of the family.

On April 25, 2021, Catherine and Thomas welcomed their son Isaiah to the world, and in September of that year Catherine returned to 3×3 to represent Canada, later playing in the inaugural 3×3 AmeriCup tournament.

Travelling North America with 3×3, playing overseas in Santiago, Spain completing her first season in 2021-2022, raising a newborn and showcasing to everyone the strength mothers have. Catherine has taken on the demands of professional basketball and from continent to continent been a role model for others wanting to pursue the highest level of sport while being a mother.

Leadership

Catherine has played many levels of basketball, in different parts of the world with different styles and different rulesets, but some of what the game asks remains constant, one of those things being leadership.

Coming into Ottawa with a lot of first and second year players, Catherine’s leadership showed itself as she played her years with the Gee-Gees, and became the veteran that was introducing the group of first and second year players to the program. Once she finished her time at Ottawa, Catherine transferred to a team with five seniors at Carleton, and with her experience with the Gee-Gees, she immediately became a part of the leadership group leading a mainly second and third year group.

Later transitioning to 3×3, Catherine took all she had learned from growing in the OttawaU system and transferring to an already fairly experienced Carleton squad, and applied it to a setting where more is asked of every player with only four players on a roster and only three on the court at one time.

As Catherine gained experience at different levels, the information she could pass on to others became more and more valuable, and through being in different settings with different groups of experienced players, Catherine has grown as a leader. In a team, regardless of situation, you have to do your part and help others do theirs, and through the positions Catherine has been put in through her basketball career, life can push you to learn how to do both contribute and ask more.

Throughout her career, basketball as taught Catherine lessons and developed skills which has made her the person she is off the basketball court. At each phase, there can be a moment to takeaway, and for someone as accomplished and experienced as Catherine, those moments reflect the growth of a true star of Canadian women’s basketball, and a role model for staying true through adversity and change, finding strength and forming memories and connections that will last a lifetime.