Damian Buckley, the highly-decorated Concordia Stingers point guard, has been invited to the Canadian senior men’s national team training camp June 19-26 in Toronto.
Under the guidance of head coach Leo Rautins, 22 Canadian players will begin preparations for a summer of international play, including Olympic qualifying.
Buckley, who has completed three seasons as the quarterback of the Stingers, had an outstanding season in 2007-’08. He’s performed his own duties at an exceptionally high level and carried an extra load because of the injuries suffered by his teammates. Despite being the main focus of every team’s defence, he averaged 20.9 points a game which was tops on the Stingers and second in the Quebec conference. He also had 93 assists and 35 steals in 16 games.
The Montreal native was the Concordia Athlete of the Week seven times last year. He was also named Concordia’s Male Athlete of the Year. He was a Quebec conference first team all-star and a second team all-Canadian.
There are only three point guards on the training camp roster. Buckley will be fighting hard to earn one of the spots on the team that represents Canada this summer.
Canada has not qualified for an Olympic berth in Beijing, but there are still three spots available in the 12-team draw. The berths will be decided at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament taking place in Athens, Greece, July 14-20.
The following countries are vying for the spots: Cameroon and Cape Verde (Africa), Puerto Rico, Brazil and Canada (Americas), Lebanon and the Republic of Korea (Asia), Greece, Germany, Croatia, and Slovenia (Europe) and New Zealand (Oceania).
Teams already qualified for Beijing: Angola (African champion), Argentina (Americas runner-up), Australia (Oceanian champion), China (host), Iran (Asian champion), Lithuania (European bronze medallist), Russia (European champion), Spain (world champion) and USA (champion of the Americas).
In preparation for Olympic qualifying Canada will host the Jack Donohue International Classic June 30-July 5 and then travel to Germany for more international exhibition games.
