Bridget Carleton Blogs From National Team Training

Hey, Cyclone Nation!

I'm back for another year of summer blogs! Over the past three and a half weeks I have been training and competing with the Canadian Senior Women's National Basketball Team. For those of you who know, this is the same team I played with all last summer as well. This year, we are preparing for the 2018 World Cup that is being held in Spain at the end of September.

36570 I flew out to Edmonton, Alberta on June 14^th to begin training camp. We practiced and trained for three weeks then we got the chance to play a couple games against the Turkish National Team. It's not very often I get to compete in Canada, let alone compete in Canada in a Canadian jersey… it's a pretty special feeling! The home crowd of red and white worked to our advantage as we pulled off two big wins against the No. 7 ranked team in the world (we are ranked No. 5).

We were supposed to play a third game against Turkey but unfortunately, more than half of their team got extremely sick from all the travel and they were unable to play.

I flew back home on July 8^th, and I am now currently on my way back to Ames with my dad to spend a week with my ISU teammates and start preparing for my senior year (that feels so weird to say)!

Though it is difficult not being in Ames with my teammates for long durations of summer, playing for my national team is a goal I've had my whole life! There have been lots of FaceTime calls, Snapchats and messaging back and forth so I can stay in the loop for the couple weeks I'm gone. This is just the beginning of what is expected to be a crazy summer with a couple more training camps and a couple more trips, including Costa Rica! Can't wait!

See you next time!

Bridget Carleton #21