Basketball New Zealand

Toby Robson, Dominion Post
Two American college players have unexpectedly landed in the lap of the New Zealand women’s basketball team just six months out from the Olympic Games.

Tall Ferns coach Mike McHugh can hardly believe his luck after discovering former Stanford University guard Clare Bodensteiner and current forward Jillian Harmon are both eligible for New Zealand.

“It totally came out of the blue,” McHugh said yesterday before explaining how two months ago Bodensteiner sent an unsolicited e-mail to Basketball New Zealand.

The 24-year-old was living in London and working as a teacher after graduating from Stanford last year, but had heard about the Christchurch Sirens and wondered if she could pick up a professional contract.

“It was basically a courtesy call to find out what was going on and we said `let’s follow this up’,” McHugh said.

It turned out Bodensteiner was born in Christchurch making her eligible for the Tall Ferns and after gaining a rave review from former US Olympic coach Tara VanDerveer, McHugh quickly drafted her into his squad.

“That was great, but then Clare said there’s another girl currently at Stanford who she thought had New Zealand citizenship,” McHugh said.

“The next day this girl calls me and says she’s a junior, a starter, her name is Jillian Harmon and her mum held a Kiwi passport.”

Harmon soon discovered she had held a New Zealand passport as a child and yesterday confirmed to McHugh that it had been successfully renewed.

Harmon, 21, is a 6ft 4in (1.93m) junior at Stanford and already established in the starting five and McHugh said she shaped as a ready-made replacement for the retired Donna Loffhagen.

“She’s a lot like Donna, long arms, good defender, good rebounder, exactly what we are looking for to fill that spot.

“God’s smiling on me at the moment,” McHugh said.

Bodensteiner will join a 16-strong Tall Ferns squad in April for a week-long camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

McHugh will then pick 12 players for the Olympic test tournament in Beijing, but has asked for dispensation to take Harmon as the 13th player.

While that was tough on local players, McHugh said his job was to find the best available players to represent New Zealand.`It’s going to be bad news for someone no matter what happens [with selections].

“But I’m sure every player and person involved in basketball in New Zealand would want to see us get the best possible results and we have to take the best players available.”