Kallon strikes fear into opponents

The rest of the Canada West conference would’ve been much happier if Jennifer Kallon stuck to soccer.

That’s because the junior forward for the Winnipeg Wesmen women’s basketball team can be a nightmare to play against on the hardwood — just ask Lakehead University who she terrorized Saturday at the Duckworth Centre with eight steals in a 72-60 pre-season victory.

“This sounds bad, but I love when players are scared of me guarding them,” said Kallon, who also had a career-high 24 points.

“It’s so obvious to see that, it’s like ‘OK, perfect.’”

The River East Collegiate product came out of nowhere. She was a competitive soccer player who only played hoops casually on the side, but once she got to Grade 9, she wanted to make a change.

The timing turned out to be less than ideal.

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic, and her Grade 10 season ended up getting wiped out.

Kallon stayed determined, though. She made the most of the downtime despite not having access to a gym. The hoop in the driveway got a ton of use, YouTube workout videos were followed to get fit, and — to her family’s dismay — she frequented the laundry room to do ballhandling drills.

“I didn’t even realize you could hear it (throughout the house) until my brother started doing the same thing,” Kallon, who has three younger brothers who also pivoted from soccer to basketball, said with a laugh.

“And I was like ‘Damn, that’s so annoying.’ And I was doing that every Saturday morning.”

When things opened back up, her hard work was noticed, and she made Basketball Manitoba’s Targeted Athlete Program and the U17 provincial team. In Grade 12, she helped River East to the provincial quarterfinals where she was named the tournament’s Players’ Choice award winner.

Wesmen head coach Alyssa Cox saw enough to make the 5-10 Kallon a key piece of her 2023 recruiting class.

“The speed of her development has been incredible. Coming out of high school, I don’t think she was super heavily recruited, but we saw a ton of potential in her,” said Cox.

“She has athletic gifts, like her body type is where it needs to be to be a high-level U Sports player. She’s got great bursts in her athleticism and speed, and those are hard to teach that she came in the door with. She always performed well, and with a little more polish, it was pretty easy to see what kind of player she could turn into.”

She averaged 4.7 points and 3.1 rebounds as a freshman. Last year, her averages grew to 7.8 points and 3.2 rebounds.

“Every time I look back at where I started, it’s honestly such a blessing. I did not see myself here,” said Kallon. “I wanted to play U Sports soccer, that’s where my head was at when I was younger. So, to be where I am now, I’m so grateful.”

Cox is expecting Kallon to take an even bigger leap in Year 3 and help the Wesmen — who are coming off back-to-back seasons finishing under .500 — return to their winning ways.

“Her role has kind of grown every year and I think this year in particular, we’re really counting on her on the offensive end,” said Cox.

“She’s worked really hard to develop her ability to attack the rim and develop her consistency from beyond the three-point line. She’s got weapons she can use offensively, and we’re hoping that she does a good job creating offence for us.”

The Wesmen enter the 2025-26 campaign loaded with experience in Kallon, Raia Guinto, Missy May Valdez, Briana Ehrmantraut, Jazmin Birch, Jasia Hayden, Sarah Boitson and Carmen Hiebert all being upperclassmen. Ehrmantraut (Canadian Mennonite University) and Valdez (Las Vegas) are transfers while the rest are no strangers to playing together.

“I came into this job four years ago, and Jen’s age group was my first really big recruiting class and they’re now entering their third year,” said Cox.

“This is the first time since my first year coaching here that we’ve been what I would call a veteran group. I think we’ve been really primed for (a winning season) for a couple of years now, and it just hasn’t fallen our way, partly because of that inconsistency in our performance. But all the signs are pointing to the fact that we’re ready and now it’s just a matter of seeing that come through in games.”

Kallon couldn’t agree more.

“Watch out,” she warned. “The 2025 Wesmen are dawgs.”

The U of W open the regular season at home against Brandon on Oct. 26.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca