Maple native honoured by basketball association

Vaughan Weekly
January 29, 2014                 
By Jeff Doner

Basketball is in Tyler Plummer’s blood.

As the youngest of five children, he fondly recalls watching his three older brothers play in the parks and gyms around their home in Vaughan.

Years later, it’s Tyler that has the shot to make his career into something special. The 15-year-old, who is currently in his second year at St. Andrew’s College (SAC) in Aurora where he is playing for the Saints varsity squad, recently received a top award from the Ontario Basketball Association (OBA).

For what has been a dream season, Plummer was recently given the James Rose Award for upholding the “finest qualities of sport in pursuit of athletic excellence” as a member of Team Ontario by the OBA.

“It was a great honour to win that award, because there are so many other great players who have won that award. It was just very flattering,” he said.

“This year has been really important to me because this is the year where some coaches start looking at players my age and I really want to be up there with the best players in my class.”

Standing at an intimidating six feet and four inches, Plummer has played on team Ontario for the past two years after making the team both times from an open tryout.

He has won two gold medals with the team in those years.

Before joining SAC, he played with the Vaughan Panthers rep team, which he credits for having a big role in developing him into the player that he is today.

“It was really good. I got to learn from a great coach, his name was Claude Nembhard, he was my first coach,” he said. “He taught me the fundamentals and everything I know today. Gad Perlmutter was another coach there that helped me a lot. That’s where it all started.”

Since learning the fundamentals with the Panthers, Plummer is now refining his skills at SAC, where he has two more years to only get better.

“At SAC it’s been a really good development for my skills,” he said. “Really great coaches there and we focus a lot on what Canada Basketball tries to do. And here at SAC it’s a balance between academics and athletics, so when I go off to university I’ll be prepared and it will be natural to me.”

Speaking of academics, Plummer has set some goals for himself that he’s intent on meeting, with the main one to earn a scholarship to a division one school in the States where he can play basketball and perhaps study kinesiology or be an athletic trainer.

And of course he has been keeping a close eye on some of the young Canadian players from the GTA and Vaughan area who are making it big in College on route to a career in the NBA.

“It’s very inspirational because I know it’s possible to make it,” he said. “Andrew Wiggins from my area in Vaughan, he made it and I saw him in the gym a few times. I look up to him and just say, ‘wow he actually made it from right where I’m from’ and there are others too.’”

It’s safe to say that scouts, coaches from down in the US are taking notice of the homegrown talent up in Canada and Plummer thinks so too.

“I think the exposure has gotten better. It’s easier to find players now than it was before and the coaches are really focusing on player development.”

He knows he still has lots of work to do and said his brothers and sister have been making sure his head is in the right spot.

“They just tell me to keep working, stay focused and humble and stay on the right path. My sister is always in my ear about staying focused,” he said.

“They never really give me a hard time, they just always tell me to just keep working and if you go far never forget about my family.”