A.I.’s MyMy Trader, here taking a shot vs. Dickinson, became the first girl in recent and recorded memory to join a high school boys’ basketball team in Delaware. Photo by Gee Johnson for Strictly GP Shots
By Chris Stevens, Editor
A.I. duPont boys’ basketball coach Sam Anderson was in a rough spot – losing players to grades, the COVID pandemic and other ailments left him with just seven players to start the season.
In the same gym, MyMy Trader, one of the driving forces of the Tiger girls’ storybook Flight B title a season ago, was a player without a team thanks to the very same issues.
The solution – Trader became the first girl in recent and recorded memory to play in a Delaware boys’ basketball game Wednesday night, one day after her first practice, as A.I. took on defending Flight B champ Dickinson. Trader saw 20 minutes of action Wednesday, including making one of two free throws in the first quarter. For such short notice, Anderson was impressed with Trader’s play.
“[Tuesday] was her first practice with us and today was her first game,” he explained. “She’s a different type of athlete – against her usual competition she would score 20 a game. That’s the kind of competitor she is. She played with energy and emphasis of effort.”
“I appreciate everyone because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be playing,” Trader said. “I knew the girls season was going to end, and Coach Anderson was cool with it. When my coach [Carmen DelCampo] texted me and told me I could play, it meant a lot.”
Trader averaged 16 points per game as a first-year guard for the Tiger girls, who went from not having a team in 2019 to winning Flight B last season. Still, with COVID wreaking havoc and the girls’ team taking another season off, she didn’t want to miss any more time.
Anderson credited A.I. athletic director John Barr and Dickinson athletic director Andy Dick for coming to agreement on Trader’s participation quickly, but he was enthused about his new player’s determination.
“She wants this, she loves the competition,” he says. “It can only benefit her. She’s shooting with a heavier ball and obviously competing against stronger young men, but she wants to play.”
“The speed of the game is different and so are the skills,” she explains. “I’m looking forward to communicating with the team more so I can score more and help them win.”
