The CMU Women's Basketball program has announced the commitment of Kristine Navea for the 2023-24 MCAC and NIAC seasons. The St James Collegiate star point guard joins a growing list of student-athletes to cross the Assiniboine to join the Blazers in recent years.
Following a championship-laden high school career, Navea will take her talents and big-game experience to CMU starting next fall, when she suits up for the Blazers in their quest for a sixth-consecutive Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference (MCAC) Title, and with the hope of standing atop of the Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC) podium for a second time in program history. In only the past two high school seasons since her Covid-cancelled grade ten year, Navea and her Jimmies teammates have won a "AAA" Provincial Championship (2022), when she received player of the game and tournament MVP in the final as a grade 11 student-athlete, after winning the Stonewall Championship and WWAC Tier 2 Championship in Winnipeg that season as well. That MHSAA Provincial Championship win was with soon-to-be-reunited teammate Zia Dacara, who enjoyed a fantastic rookie campaign this season with the Blazers. Having just finished another successful high school season, Navea led her team from the point to take the title at tournaments in Sanford and Lorette en route to a consolation final win at the 2023 Provincial Championships in Thompson, MB this past week. Plenty of personal accolades came her way throughout her high school career, including most recently being awarded the Most Valuable Player Award for varsity athletes at St James Collegiate, the Jimmie Character Award, the SPORT AWARD for physical education and the Gold Winner for the WWAC to cap off her high school career.
Navea has also led the charge from the point in a club basketball career that began with Alliance which saw her team make the finals in three consecutive club tournaments in the 2019 season, culminating with a finals appearance in Edmonton. She captained her Alliance squad for the 2019 and 2020 seasons before the pandemic-cancelled year, after which she captained Triumph Basketball for one season, then trained with North Star this past club season, and has opted to focus on her studies for her final year of club eligibility.
More than just a basketball athlete, Navea found time to compete at track and field (100M, long jump, triple jump) as well as volleyball (left side, libero) and soccer during her time at St James Collegiate, all factors that allow the newest Blazer to utilize a variety of skills and talents in her game, which caught the eye of Blazers Women's Basketball Head Coach Joe DiCurzio. "We are thrilled to have Kristine join the Blazers," noted DiCurzio, who is now entering his eleventh season at the helm of the program. "She is an outstanding point guard that really sees the court extremely well and will make everyone around her better. Kristine is a terrific three-point shooter and with her excellent ability to attack the basket she will be a very tough player to defend. She comes to us from the excellent program at St James Collegiate, so she will be able to step in and help the team right away."
Getting connected with CMU was pretty simple for Navea, who had to look no further than the aforementioned Dacara, as well as former Jimmie Briana Ehrmantraut who have each made the jump from St James to CMU and seen their games grow over the past two seasons. Now looking ahead to her collegiate career, Navea is excited about starting a new chapter in her life, and about growing her own skills and knowledge of the game under the tutelage of DiCurzio.
With the 2023-23 season now complete, the Blazers will soon start gearing up for next year when they will look to defend their MCAC title and put together another fantastic run South of the border after the team were finalists this year in their first season back in the NIAC since their 2020 Championship win.