‘He's just getting going'
Two provincial teams, a Zone 4 AA championship and, most recently, an invitation to the Canadian U16 Men's National Team training camp roster — Kaj Willms is building quite the resumé just a year and a half into his basketball career.
The 15-year-old out of Rossendale — a small community nestled southeast of Portage la Prairie — stands taller than all of his teammates at Westpark School at 6-11 and is also standing out in the national team program.
Willms took up basketball after Grade 8, encouraged by his uncle and Westpark Royals head coach Dave Britton, which eventually led him to try out at the National Team ID camp hosted by Canada Basketball in September.
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Rossendale's Kaj Willms already has two provincial teams, a Zone 4 AA championship and a National Team training camp invitation on his resumé.
From there, Willms was invited, along with 32 other hopeful hoopsters, to the U16 Men's High Performance National Team Assessment Camp over Easter weekend in Toronto.
It was at that camp where Willms was told that he was selected to attend the U16 National Team's training camp at the end of May.
'It was pretty crazy to me that, me being from where I'm from, from my little school, that I would make it all the way to be selected to this camp,' said Willms. 'That was just shocking to me.'
Willms was the lone Manitoban at the camp, who tried out with 15 other athletes to represent Canada in the FIBA U16 Men's AmeriCup 2025, going June 2-8 in Juárez, Mexico.
Although Willms did not make the final 12-player roster, he says the experience was good for his development.
'It was great to match up against some of the best guys in the country, well, the best guys in the country,' Willms said. 'I could see myself improving every practice and so could the coaches, and they made sure to let me know that I was doing very well and that I was improving a lot.'
Willms is now back at home and will continue training with the U17 provincial team as a roster player, coached by Dan Becker.
'He has been instrumental in Kaj's development,' said Corey Willms, Kaj's father. 'He saw him at the junior academy a year and a half ago, and then invited to play on his club team in Winnipeg. That was a great experience for Kaj.'
Becker supported Kaj as he tried out for his first provincial team last year with the U15s and says the young player is developing at a fast rate.
'He was tall,' said Becker, recalling his first impression of the Rossendale native. 'He was very tall for his age. He moved quite well for his age, he had good hands, and he listened well and was competitive.'
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Rossendale's Kaj Willms has only being playing basketball for a year and a half.
In addition to making provincial teams and attending national camps, Willms also helped his Westpark Royals varsity basketball team win the Zone 4 AA championship in February, defeating the Roseau Valley Raiders 82-70.
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'He's hit a lot of milestones,' said Becker. 'His strengths are aggressiveness, rebounding the ball and finishing near the rim. He actually has a nice shooting touch, too.'
Willms says he wants to keep working on his offensive game and hopes to one day play NCAA Division I basketball in the U.S.
'He's got to build the confidence and experience just for the game to come naturally, the shooting in the games,' said Becker. 'But he has that ability so I expect to see that come into play in the next year or so.'
'He's just getting going.'
zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca
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