As the crow flies – it would be a fatigued crow upon conclusion of that trip – the City of Coimbra in Portugal is some 5,000-kilometres from the Maritimes.
The region does indeed attract Canadian tourists, looking for something different and hitting popular locations such as Lisbon, Porto and Braga.
Coimbra is Portugal’s fourth largest city behind those three and has become a popular destination, not necessarily for tourists, but for basketball players.
Primarily players from the Maritime Women’s Basketball Association.
Four players have worn the colours of Academica de Coimbra, all of them with plenty of experience in the MWBA.
Karissa Kajorinne, who played in the MWBA in its first two years of existence, was the first to discover Coimbra. She was followed by former MWBA teammate – with the Windsor Edge (now Lake City 56rs) and Halifax Thunder teammate, Tiffany Reynolds.
A year ago, Abby Miller brought her game to the Portugese city, combining with Kajorinne to win a divisional title with Coimbra.
Now, this year, one of the top players to ever play in the MWBA is a teammate of Miller’s as Allie McCarthy signed her first professional contract in the region with a population of some 150,000 people.
Miller played with the Moncton Mystics and then won an MWBA PRO·LINE Legacy Cup title with the Miramichi HerIcanes in 2025. McCarthy is a perennial MWBA all-star and tied for the lead as the league’s all-time leading scorer with Fredericton Freeze teammate, Eva Tumwine.
For Coimbra head coach, João Maia, the MWBA has been a solid recruiting ground.
‘Of the five international players we have had in our program, four have played in the MWBA and all of them have performed at a very high level for us here in Portugal,’ said Maia. ‘Naturally, the MWBA has become a very relevant place for me to follow and evaluate players.’
It was Kajorinne – still top five all-time in MWBA scoring – who introduced Maia to the eight-team Maritime circuit, preparing for its sixth season next April.
Maia spends plenty of time scouring university players, but likes the access he has to the MWBA.
‘For us in Europe, it can sometimes to difficult to watch full games of players during their university seasons because there isn’t always access to those games,’ he said. ‘The MWBA gives me an opportunity to watch players in a competitive environment, see them play full games and get a better understanding of what they can do on the court even though it is a very different contest from university basketball. The MWBA is a very interesting competition. I have seen it grow and I think the quality of both the players and the basketball being played has continued to improve.
Both Kajorinne and Reynolds have departed the program, but Miller and McCarthy – M&M, anyone? – are certainly providing an MWBA spark.
Coimbra defeated Belenenses, 62-45 last weekend.
McCarthy went off for 20 points and 11 rebounds, named player of the game. Miller was her usual rebounding self, securing 10 boards and adding nine points.
Yes, the talent level has been there for Maia and his Canadian connections, that’s not in doubt.
What impresses the head coach is the quality of the person.
‘More than just being very good basketball players, they are all excellent people,’ Maia said. ‘They have very good character, they’re humble, resilient and willing to work hard. Those are extremely important qualities to me when recruiting a player, especially when you are bringing someone from another country into your team and your community. All of them have been exactly what we were looking for. They work hard, they are great teammates and they have integrated very well into our group. Of course, the basketball quality is there and it’s high, but what has impressed me most about all of them is the kind of people and teammates they are. I feel lucky to be working and to have worked with athletes of this calibre.’
It’s not always easy being an import.
It can be one thing to be from New Brunswick or Nova Scotia and land on a team in Alberta or British Columbia.
Quite another to pack some belongings, cross the pond and find that everything from culture to food to people to language can be challenging.
Then, there are also the players who call European ports home.
They’re from the location, grew up in the system and have to accept international imports who may take playing time.
Maia said his team has embraced the MWBA wave.
‘Our Portuguese players understand that moving to a new country and adapting to a completely different environment takes time,’ he said. ‘They also know that, when someone is so far away from home, having a kind of ‘second family’ here in Portugal can make a big difference. They have done a very good job of creating that feeling. Nobody is left out or treated differently and the players also spend time together and do things outside of basketball, which makes the adaptation process much easier. For me, that is very important. We want our international players to feel that they are not just coming here to play basketball, but that they are genuinely part of the group and part of our team.’
Maia has noticed an interesting evolution in the international players making their way to Coimbra or other teams in the league.
It used to be players from the United States were the international talents coming in
‘The Portuguese women’s basketball market is much more open to Canadian players now than it was a few years ago,’ Mai said. ‘In the past, there was a perception that American players were the main option when clubs were looking for international talent, but I think that has changed. We are now seeing more Canadian players across our leagues. They are showing they can bring a lot of quality to Portuguese basketball.’
All four Coimbra players excelled at the Canadian university level.
Kajorinne and Reynolds were teammates with Ontario University Athletics’ Lakehead University Thunderwolves. McCarthy shone with OUA’s University of Ottawa Gee Gees and Miller played four seasons at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association level with Mount Allison University Mounties and one USPORTS campaign with University of Prince Edward Island Panthers after graduating from the Sackville, NB, campus.
The MWBA boasts plenty of talent of former university and collegiate players along with up and coming young players.
If there’s a consideration of playing professionally in Europe, Maia will listen.
‘Players competing in the MWBA who have the ambition to play professionally should definitely consider Portugal,’ he said. ‘It can be a very good place to start a professional career in Europe, adapt to European basketball and show what they can do at this level.’
Maia and his charges are on the practice court four days a week. They work out in the evening for 90 minutes and there are also three daytime shooting sessions.
Usually, there is one game each weekend with the exception being the Portugese Cup, a competition that features teams from all divisions of the country’s women’s leagues. If the team keeps advancing in competition, there can be weekends with an additional game.
The teams slug it through a September pre-season period, with the competitive season usually running from October until the end of May, with competitive breaks around Christmas and Easter.
Coimbra won its divisional championship last year which meant Miller wasn’t able to return to the MWBA and play with HerIcanes, even though the Miramichi team had her on its roster, fingers crossed she would join the team.
Coimbra’s playoff run halted that hope, but the MWBA as a whole, celebrated two of its former players winning a crown in Portugal.
Maia has never ventured to Canada ‘but it’s definitely become part of my bucket list since I started having more contact with Canadian players and people.’
Amazing how small the basketball world is.
Truly.
‘I would love to visit the country and experience the culture, but one of my biggest motivations is basketball,’ he said. ‘After coaching several Canadian players and following Canadian basketball more closely, I’ve become really interested in experiencing it first-hand. I would love to visit teams, watch practices, meet coaches and learn more about how basketball is approached and how players are developed in Canada. If the opportunity came up, I would also be very interested in getting involved in some way, whether through training camps, summer camps or any other basketball experience. For me, it would be a great opportunity to learn, exchange ideas with Canadian coaches and understand their basketball culture much better.’
Maia is considering a trip to Canada in the summer of 2027 and you can almost guarantee, many of the Maritime-based coaches would welcome him as a guest.
He would not be surprised.
‘My experience with MWBA players has been extremely positive, both on and off the court and having four players from the league come through our program and perform at a very good level has naturally made me pay more attention to the MWBA and Canadian basketball in general,’ he said. ‘I hope we can continue building this connection between the MWBA and our program in Portugal. I think there are talented players in the league who can have very good opportunities in European basketball and hopefully we can be part of that pathway for some of them.’
Canadian basketball has earned a fan, some 5,000-kilometres away.
‘On a personal level, it has also made me much more interested in Canadian basketball,’ Maia said. ‘I hope I can experience it in the future, meet more people involved in the game and continue exchanging ideas and experiences between Canadian and Portuguese basketball.’
