CHRIS
SIMNETT
CRH Communications
Nicole Dypolt loves being a nurse.
But the opportunity to pursue a professional basketball career won’t be around forever.
That’s why the 25-year-old native Calgarian, a registered nurse who works on Unit 73 at the Rockyview General Hospital, is going to put her health-care career on hold in December to play in a professional women’s hoops league in Europe.
The Bishop Grandin high school alumnus played four years at the State University of New York at Binghamton. After graduating with a degree in cell and molecular biology, she returned to Calgary three years ago to attend medical school.
But the call of the hardwood intervened.
The six-foot, two-inch centre went on a European tour with the Canadian Out West team, a collection of top Western Canadian players. In Europe, she was noticed by pro coaches and scouts and there has been much interest in her services and a few offers.
But she missed the entrance exam to medical school when she was in Europe. Upon returning to Canada, she took a one-season assignment as an assistant coach with the Lethbridge College Kodiaks, the team for which her younger sister, Deana, played. While in Lethbridge, she began volunteering at the hospital there and fell in love with nursing.
Dypolt decided to move back to Calgary and enroll in a two-year nursing course. She started work as a student nurse at Rockyview in December and graduated last April.
Now an RN, she especially likes the challenge of working on Unit 73, a medical teaching unit. The patients on the unit have co-morbidity, which means they have problems with two or more body systems.
“If you have kidney failure, you go to a kidney unit, but if you have kidney failure and heart failure, you come to our unit,” Dypolt explains.
“I like it, it’s a challenge,” she adds. “There’s something new every day. You always see something new. You’re always learning new skills. That’s what I enjoy about it.”
As much as she likes her job and her co-workers, basketball beckons.
“I love it,” she says of the sport. “I’ve been addicted to it since I was seven. I like being part of the team.”
Dypolt, who has always been tall, didn’t start the sport because of her height.
“Our parents just put us in it,” says Dypolt, who has a twin sister, Alicia. “It was a cheap sport to put all three of us in. All they had to do was buy each of a pair of sneakers. Our dad was our coach and our mom was our cheerleader.”
She and her sisters played with the boys at first. When they got to high school, all three started on the Bishop Grandin team and earned the nickname Three-D.
Nicole is the tallest of the three sisters. She always played centre and excelled underneath the basket.
Naturally left-handed, Dypolt uses her strong hand to shoot from around the hoop, while she switches to her right hand for free throws and outside shots.
“I think it’s because when I was little, when we went to clinics and camps, they would always show you shooting with their right hand and when I said I was left-handed, they said, ‘Well just follow along as best you can,’” she says.
“And I think that’s why I do both.”
Being ambidextrous, combined with her athleticism, strong defensive skills and ability to dribble – uncommon for someone her size – are the secrets to her success.
Playing in the NCAA was her initial goal for the sport. The European tour with the Out West team took care of her next goal. Now she wants to take the next step and play pro ball.
She’s being recruited by a number of teams in countries such as Germany and Denmark and is confident she will be playing somewhere other than the Calgary women’s and co-ed leagues by Christmas.
She will be making a financial sacrifice to go, however.
Women players in Europe make between 400 and 1,000 Euros a month – that’s $550 to $1,400 Cdn – compared to the 4,000 to 12,000 ($5,500-$16,500 Cdn) the male pros earn.
“It’s about the love of the sport,” she says.
“You’ve really got to love the sport to want to do that.”
Dypolt works as a casual on Unit 73 so she can work around her three days of training and league commitments every week.
“Some nights I don’t sleep too much,” she says, when asked about juggling her job and basketball commitments.
She was an assistant coach with Grandin last season and could easily forget about competitive basketball and become a full-time nurse, play recreationally and do some more coaching.
Not just yet.
“I would miss playing basketball too much,” she says with a smile.