Nelly Owusu’s journey back to basketball
The Stingers guard embraces love and leadership after years away
Nelly Owusu remembers the 2021-22 Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) women’s basketball semi-final like it was yesterday.
The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team sat at a 9-3 record, and was the first-place favourite against a Université du Québec à Montréal Citadins club who only managed to go 6-6.
When the final buzzer sounded, however, the underdog Citadins had shocked the Stingers, winning 75-68 despite the Stingers’ home-court advantage. The upset not only ended the Stingers’ season but marked the final game of Owusu’s undergraduate career. At the time, she assumed it was the last time she’d ever walk off John Dore Court as a Stinger.
“We had no words, to be honest,” Owusu said, reminiscing on the silence in the locker room after the loss. “We were just sitting in that locker room crying, upset. It was just a lot of emotions that day.”
Owusu rejoined the team ahead of the 2024-25 calendar year, although the decision to use her final year of eligibility three seasons later was not as simple as an email to her head coach. She had to first breathe in the next chapter of her life, a career after basketball that allowed time for growth.
Owusu entered the workforce following graduation. She initially employed her child studies degree and found work as a special needs educator. Owusu liked working with children, but the hours and workload proved heavy.
“Imagine finishing school, and then going back and working in a school,” Owusu said. “I didn’t really have a break per se, the break that I wanted. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t a break from basketball that I needed, but more a mental break.”
Owusu started working for Adidas, and, thanks to healthier work hours, travelled the world, while simultaneously exploring opportunities to flex her creative muscles. She landed an internship with the Toronto Raptors as part of a creative design program and spent a month in Detroit, Michigan learning the trade.
“I got a certificate at the end,” Owusu said. “It was a great experience, and from there, I figured that I wanted to go into a business, graphic design workforce.”
It was here that she contemplated returning to school, but before she made that decision, she also had one last nagging issue to deal with.
Owusu dislocated her shoulder in 2019. Since then, she had grown accustomed to her arm bone popping out of place, and the discomfort was gruelling. She wore a brace while shooting, but the pain would set in within the first few reps.
“That was one of the [other] reasons why mentally I couldn’t take it for basketball,” Owusu said. “I was putting my body at risk, but the two years that I was off, I had the time to have surgery.”
It took Owusu roughly six months to recover after going under the knife. The rehabilitation gave her time to scope out her next path forward. She regularly attended Stingers games to support her roommate, then-Stingers guard Areej Burgonio.
“She never missed a game,” Burgonio said, speaking enthusiastically about the support from her roommate. “For me, the biggest thing is giving back for what she did for me in my two years [without her]. She’s doing one year so I’m trying to be at every game and be that supportive teammate and best friend.”
Owusu also attended a senior night celebration at Dawson College, her alma mater, and it’s here that she crossed paths with Stingers head coach Tenicha Gittens. She hinted at wanting to return to the Stingers, but her coach was not fully convinced at first.
“I said, ‘Nelly, don’t play with me,’” Gittens said, laughing while recounting their interaction. “If it was a year removed, OK, but you haven’t played in two years. That could be a little scary.”
Owusu told her former bench boss about the successful surgery, and after a few minutes, Gittens realized how serious the guard was. Their relationship is that of an older and younger sister, as Gittens described it. It was due to this trust that Owusu was given the green light.
“I was like, ‘You already know, you always got a spot with me,’” Gittens said.
Owusu enrolled in Concordia University’s graduate business administration program, and rejoined the team for summer training in 2024.
“I did have a lot of nervous hesitation,” Owusu said. “I haven’t played ball in two years. That means two years of no cardio, two years of no shooting.”
Owusu also faced the difficulty of acclimating to a new team. Yes, she may have reclaimed Stingers status, but the roster was not so familiar upon her return.
The slew of veterans compiling the basketball roster in 2022 had come and gone. The likes of Caroline Task, Myriam Leclerc and others were replaced with a young team. Gittens deployed a short bench in the 2023-24 season, meaning that even incoming second-year players had little experience at the U Sports level. With Owusu’s return, however, it allowed for the now fourth-year guard to dawn the role of veteran.
“I am older compared to a lot of girls on the team,” Owusu said, acknowledging that she is soon-to-be 27. Despite this, and still going through rehabilitation post-surgery, she took a self-sure approach instead of dwelling on what-ifs.
“It’s just more about being confident in myself,” Owusu said. “And also being like, ‘If I can’t physically do what I have to do, then at least the wisdom that I have, I can teach it to the younger generation."
In her nine games played, Owusu is averaging a respectable seven points and four rebounds, while converting over 30 per cent of her field goals. The Stingers sit in fourth place in the RSEQ standings at 3-6, but Owusu is not solely focused on success. In her true final year, Owusu has chosen to be compassionate and take it all in.
“There’s this Bible verse that I really love, 1 Corinthians 16:14,” Owusu said. “It says to do everything with love [...] When it comes to basketball, do it with love. When it comes to my friendships and relationships, I will show a lot of love.”
“She does exactly that,” Gittens said. “Nelly is love, and she’s love unconditional [...] When you look up the definition of love, and we think of love, love is beyond what Disney Channel tells you it is. It forgives all, it holds no judgment. That’s what Nelly literally is.”