It鈥檚 Sophie De Goede鈥檚 decision.
But the Lukan sisters have gone through it.
Megan and Kaili Lukan are now with the Canadian women鈥檚 sevens rugby team after each playing four seasons of Div. 1 NCAA basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Kaili, the Horizon League defensive player of the year in 2015-16 at UW-Green Bay, now joins her sister in the Langford-based rugby program after Megan won bronze with the Canadian team last summer at the Rio Olympics.
De Goede is the Grade 12 Oak Bay multi-sport standout who is being recruited by NCAA and Canadian U Sports universities for basketball while also contemplating a future in international rugby.
You can make it in both, say the Lukan sisters, and they are living proof.
鈥淒o as many sports as you can then find out the one you love the most and go for it,鈥� said Megan Lukan, a four-year starter at point-guard for UW-Green Bay before switching to rugby.
鈥淚 loved both basketball and rugby. Basketball offered me the better opportunity at first. You can always switch. Now I have an Olympic medal in rugby. It鈥檚 all about the journey.鈥�
De Goede, the daughter of Canadian rugby legend Hans De Goede, is all ears as she hits the stretch drive toward March with the sa国际传媒 top-ranked Oak Bay High Breakers in basketball.
鈥淚 want to do as much as I can at the highest level for as long as as I can,鈥� said De Goede.
鈥淚 want to play both sports and see what opportunities are out there. I have goals in both sports.鈥�
Toward that end, De Goede said she has decided on a U Sports school for basketball instead of the NCAA because that will allow her to stay close to the Island-based national team rugby program. She said UVic and Queen鈥檚 are among the several schools she is considering for hoops.
鈥淭here are lots of cross-over skills between basketball and sevens rugby . . . you need great vision and great hands in both sports,鈥� said Kaili Lukan, who joins Megan to become the first sisters to play together on the national team.
De Goede, the Lukans and the rest of the national team rugby sevens players wrap up training camp today at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence on the Camosun College Interurban campus. The 14 selected Canadian players, including the Lukan sisters from Barrie, Ont., head to Australia on Saturday for a warm-weather pre-camp before the HSBC World Series Sydney Sevens tournament Feb. 3-4.
De Goede, still in high school at Oak Bay, will not make the trip with the Rio Olympics bronze-medallist Canadian team.
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