TRURO, N.S. – Madison Munro knows the feeling of winning.
As a member of the Cape Breton Capers, the Truro native celebrated an Atlantic University Sport women’s basketball title in 2017 – the highlight of a college hoops journey that began five years ago.
Now, Munro – in her final university season – looks to repeat that success for the opportunity to compete for a national championship one final time.
“That’s the goal every year, but being in my fifth year it would be amazing just to go out on a high and kind of achieve those goals once again,” said Munro, 22.
The Capers have been one of the top AUS teams all season. Heading into Friday’s game at Saint Mary’s, the Capers sport a 13-2 record and have clinched a playoff spot with five games remaining on the regular slate. Munro, a five-foot-10 power forward, has been a big part of her team’s success. She has started in all 15 games for the Capers and is averaging 29 minutes per game. She is fourth in the conference in defensive rebounds with 85 and has been a clutch three-point shooter, connecting on almost 40 per cent of her shots from beyond the arc – third-best in the league.
“I don’t worry too much about statistics,” she said. “As long as I’m going out there and doing my job on the floor; I try and come out and play as hard as I can every game. It’s great that my shots have been falling … but as long as I can do whatever I need to do to make the team successful, that’s kind of where I’m at.”
Munro, an academic All-Canadian last season, was recruited by CBU during her senior year at Cobequid Educational Centre. Capers coach Fabian MacKenzie said she came to the team as an unheralded player out of high school, however, her work ethic and ability to adapt allowed her to become a bona fide player at the university level.
“She brings the versatility where she can shoot it, she defends hard, she knows what we need to do at all the right times,” said MacKenzie. “She’s been a huge piece of the puzzle for us while she’s been here and is going to be a key factor coming down the stretch and into the playoffs.
“I can’t speak enough about how she’s progressed,” he added. “She came in as somebody who didn’t play a lot early and just kept working her way through. She’s a great role model for young ladies on how to handle success and how to build success.”
Munro – a BBA student (major in marketing) – credits MacKenzie and assistant coach Doug Connors, along with former and current teammates, for her success, and says it was the early years at CBU that shaped her as a player.
“I really didn’t play a lot my first couple of years, which was tough; it’s always tough kind of watching, but that kind of instills a level of work that you need to put in and I think I learned a lot from that.”
And while Munro has grown as a basketball player at CBU, she has also grown as a person.
“Honestly, that’s probably the biggest aspect that I took out of playing at Cape Breton was how personally I have grown, and the coaches, between Doug and Fab, how they’ve allowed me to grow and shaped me to who I am, and even just being around the girls, I’ve had a phenomenal experience with just the girls themselves; it’s been amazing.”
