Dedication, hard work and perseverance will get you places.
Cochrane’s Connor Branch channelled them into a spot with the Carleton University Ravens men’s basketball program.
The Cochrane High School Cobras grad, who helped coach the Cobras varsity boy’s team with Kris Nielson this past season, has booked his ticket to join the Ottawa-based Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) hoops powerhouse next month.
A four-day tryout with the Ravens in early July earned the 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward a full-tuition scholarship at Carleton. This, after Branch was offered spots at Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference schools from Medicine Hat to Edmonton and at other CIS schools like University of Calgary and Mount Royal.
He even spent the spring in North Carolina campaigning National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools like Tulane, Clemson and Maryland before settling on Carleton, which was looking for a big man at forward. The Ravens have won 10 of the last 12 CIS men’s national basketball titles, including the last four in a row.
“I showed up at Carleton on Canada Day and I got to practice with the team. The best team I’ve seen. Ever. Crazy work ethic. Crazy-talented athletes,” Branch said of his new team. “I felt like I was the worst player ever. It ruined my confidence. Then the coach brought me in and said: ‘We’d be really excited to have you. I think you’d be a really great player.’ ”
His success wasn’t without tribulation. Beset with injuries in high school, Branch grappled with reaching for the next level. He even joked his senior stats in high school, five points and six rebounds per game, were nothing to brag about. But he played his role well as a senior, using his big body to make space for shooters like Cooper Hamaliuk (SAIT) and Kellen Forrest (U of C football).
“I was just picking up the garbage Cooper and Kellen threw up,” Branch cracked, before continuing; “I wasn’t really that good a basketball player. I was injured half the time. I had an ACL tear in Grade 9 when I was 13 years old. It took me a really long time to recover. I didn’t have surgery until the end of Grade 10, when I was 15. I had surgery and I wasn’t really fully recovered until my Grade 12 year. That’s when I started to play a little more. But I was still really trying to learn the game because I was out for so long.
“I was just trying to keep up.”
After graduating from Cochrane High in 2012, Branch took a year off “to figure myself out. To see what I can do. I just really wanted to work on myself. I set a goal and went out to go get it.”
Between work, and helping Nielson coach the Cobras this past high school season, the 19-year-old squeezed in an intense fitness and skills regimen.
“I scoured the internet and different sources for ways to improve,” he relayed. “Dribbling, shooting, footwork, conditioning, athleticism, strength. I’d look at all those different subjects and I’d try and combine them with things I could do to make myself better in a short amount of time.
“I’d stay in the gym until they would kick me out and turn the lights off. I just needed to get better. I just craved it.”
His makeover worked, earning him a spot with the top university men’s basketball program in the nation.
“It just shows how hard work and confidence in yourself pays off.”
Said Branch’s former coach, Kris Nielson:
“Connor has always been one of my favourite players to coach but it hasn’t always been easy for him. He’s had his fair share of setbacks that would have been deal-breakers for most players. But one of the things I love about Connor is his resiliency.”
