Maple Ridge basketball star Kolbie Orum is on her way to Amsterdam, Netherlands to play in the U17 World Championship for Women.

Canada Basketball selected 12 athletes who will represent Canada in the Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur U17 worlds, which will be played from Aug. 17 to 26.

"We just heard tonight that [Kolbie] has made Team Canada's U17 women's national team once again and is heading to Amsterdam to compete in the FIBA world basketball tourney," said proud mom Rene Croft of the Maple Ridge Secondary student.

"They train in Toronto until Aug. 10, head to Belgium for six days in exhibition games and then on to Holland," Croft added. Emma Wolfram from Kamloops was the only other B.C. player named to the team.

The other players on the roster are Christina Buttenham, Shay Colley, Kayla Davis, Kia Nurse, Audrey Ann Caron-Goudreau, Khaleann Caron-Goudreau, Quinn Dornstauder, Hannah Jardine, Emily Potter, and Saicha Grant-Allen.

"We are very excited about our group of twelve. Over the past year, several individuals have shown tremendous improvement, and made our decisions very difficult," said head coach Carly Clarke.

"Overall we have a great deal of size, length, athleticism and versatility, which should allow us to play in a variety of ways and with a variety of lineups."

The team qualified for the FIBA U17 World Championship by placing third in last year's FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women. The youth women's program is currently ranked fourth in the world in the FIBA rankings.

The team will have a great deal of experience with seven players returning from last year's Canadian Cadette Women's National Team that won a bronze medal at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship. Returning players include; Audrey Anne and Khaleann Caron-Goudreau, Grant-Allen, Jardine, Nurse, Orum, and Wolfram.

Players eligible for this competition must have been born on or after Jan. 1, 1995.

"We are pleased to have our U17 program competing in its second consecutive FIBA U17 World Championship for Women," said director of Women's High Performance, Denise Dignard.

"This is an opportunity for our staff to work on developing our top international prospects at an age-group world championship, as they strive to become world class and represent Canada at the World Championships and Olympic Games."

In this year's FIBA U17 World Championship for Women, Canada has been placed in Group A which includes Belgium, Italy, Korea, Mali, and U.S.A.

Their first game will be against Italy on Friday, Aug. 17 at 12: 45 p.m.

smclaren@mrtimes.com