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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, February 6, 2014 | 16 HALTON TRANSMISSION 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 905-842-0725 www.haltontransmission.com Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Bound by history Trinity grad reunited with lifelong friend at Laurier L other people accomplish their dreams and you don't." Metroland Media Group The women trace their route to Laurier from similar beginnings. Osei's mom, Georgina, emigrated from ee Anna Osei's and Doreen Bonsu's lives have intersected with so much Ghana to Toronto as a pregnant single purpose, they are certain they've been mom. Bonsu's mom, Afua Appiahaa, landed in thrown together by providence. "It's crazy the way fate has come toward the same three-story townhouse, similar cirus," Osei, the starting point guard of Wil- cumstances bringing her there. She, too, was a single mom, recently frid Laurier University's women's basketball moved from Ghana, trying to provide as best team, says of her lifelong best friend. Much like their team, Osei and Bonsu have their she could for her young family. So their two little girls became fast own unlikely success stories to share. The two women, who grew up in Toronto's friends. Going to the library together, buying ice notorious Jane and Finch neighbourhood, bucked the odds to emerge as accomplished cream cones together, playing basketball together and attending church students and team centretogether. pieces at Laurier. "Jane and Finch!" Osei These undersized cagers and Bonsu hoot in unison and history majors are pillars in a corridor after a recent of Wilfrid Laurier's unlikely Hawks victory, hand slaps success on the basketball and smiles all around. court, too. Just surviving the experi"They are both so strong ence is reason enough to celand such passionate playebrate. ers," says Hawks coach Paul Back then, the gun battles Falco. in one of Canada's most infa"One of their biggest assets mous gang-infested districts is they are both great team exploded with the frequency players." of thunderstorms. The unheralded WLU The violence and poverty Hawks soared to the highest eventually caused more anxnational ranking in their hisDoreen Bonsu iety than their moms could tory, No. 7, earlier this seaOn her advice to young black athletes bear. son. Soon after a shootout And it's in no small part due to two women who share deep West erupted in their townhouse complex when African roots and aspire to be teachers after Doreen was in Grade 3, her mom packed up the family and moved them to the suburban university. So, of course, Black History Month reso- safety of Oakville. Georgina saved up enough money evennates for both of them. After all, they are writing their own chap- tually to move her family -- Lee Anna, her older brother Samuel and little sister Blessters, too. Bonsu, who has worked with the Asso- ing -- to Woodbridge. And so Osei and Bonsu lost touch for a ciation of Black Students at Laurier to help mentor young black athletes, has a message while. As they grew, they'd see each other ocfor them. "Stay in school and get good grades, " says casionally on the high school basketball Bonsu, 21, an honour roll student through courts, share high-fives and knowing grins, her high school days at Oakville's Holy Trin- while with their respective teams. The Oseis waged their own battles. ity. Lee Anna's mom, raised in a traditional Af"Sports are not forever. My mother always told me no one can take your degree from rican family, couldn't quite understand why you, but your basketball career can end any a girl should play sports in the first place. Yet Osei had unearthed a deep abiding time." "My message to young, aspiring black love for basketball. She eventually left home as a high school youth," says Osei, "is to never give up. Other people may not go through the same strug- freshman, moving from place to place gles, but that shouldn't be the reason why six times before she eventually settled in by Christine Rivet No one can take your degree from you, but your basketball career can end any time. Oakville resident Doreen Bonsu (left) and Woodbridge's Lee Anna Osei, who grew up together in a dangerous Toronto neighbourhood before relocating to the suburbs, have been reunited this year on the Wilfrid Laurier University women's basketball team. | photo by Mathew McCarthy -- Metroland Media Group Vaughan from where she bused halfway across the Toronto area to Toronto's Eastern Commerce Collegiate. Osei emerged as a linchpin in powerful Eastern Commerce's attack, and the Saints went on to capture unprecedented back-toback Ontario basketball titles. Lee Anna graduated as a four-time honour roll student, team captain, city all-star and the Saints' all-time assists leader. To this day, Georgina has never seen her daughter play or practise. But Osei, who has since reconnected with her mom, remains hopeful. "I'd still like her to see me play someday, though." After those high school championships, the doors swung wide open for Osei. Scholarship offers poured in from Cornell, St. John's University in New York and the University of Miami. She settled on the latter. But before she even got started, the first of a series of lifealtering circumstances nearly derailed her university career once and for all. A diagnosis of compartment syndrome, a painful and potentially serious condition in her legs, put Osei under the surgeon's knife. Her injury-plagued first season with the Miami Hurricanes led her to seek the comfort of familiar faces. Osei transferred out to Trinity Valley Community College in Texas where several of her high school teammates had landed. But the Lone Star State was a long way from home, and Osei had decided it was time to come back. She intended to get a factory job close by to help support her family after her mom was injured in a car crash. Her older brother, Samuel, a straight-A business and psychology double-major during his days at Laurier, went on to become a chartered accountant in Toronto. He was determined to have Lee Anna enrol at his alma mater. Shortly after her acceptance from Laurier, see Bonsu on p.17