The Puerto Rico Women’s Basketball National Team is taking its appearance in this year’s FIBA Women’s U-16 Americas Championship serious, and it wants Hamilton Township’s Giana Boulden to be a part of it.
Boulden, who was named MVP of the Trenton Catholic Academy team as a freshman this past winter, was seen by Puerto Rican National Program director Gerardo Batista at a recent New Jersey Sparks AAU game in the Boo Williams Tournament in Virginia. Batista, who coaches the U-18 team but procures talent for other levels, came to see another player.
While there, he became so enamored by Boulden that he obtained the cell number of her stepfather, Dewayne Lewis, and texted him during the game. The two searched each other out and exchanged pleasantries and information afterward and, in early May, the Bouldens were informed their daughter was on the Puerto Rican U-16 team. She is eligible for the squad because her mom, Luceneida, hails from Puerto Rico.
“We knew they were looking for people, and we had sent them a schedule, but we had no idea they were coming to that game,” Lewis said. “After the game he texted me, and basically said ‘Where are you?’ I didn’t know what he looked like or who he was but he had a big shirt with that Puerto Rico sign on it, and I said ‘Oh, OK!’ I started talking to him, he said ‘I like her a lot. I just have to let you know,’ because he was talking to some other girls over there. He finally said yes at the start of May.”
It was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.
“Absolutely,” Lewis said. “This is something we weren’t expecting. This just comes from hard work and preparation.”
Giana, who at age 14 will be playing with girls two years older, admitted it was the last thing she expected.
“I was surprised,” she said. “I was like ‘Wow, really?’”
Yes, really. What is impressive is that Boulden made the team based solely on her performance in the Boo Williams event. According to U16 head coach Jerry Batista, most players had to earn their way on the team through tryouts.
On April 26, Batista discussed the new preparation stage for Team Puerto Rico on fiba.com, saying “In the past months we have been working in stages, first we identified talent. Then we began to show the players what we want from them. We are making them compete between them and from there we are making the selections for the team.
“We will be traveling to identify talent. Last year, we traveled to do it, and have maintained contact. The players that we identified in the United States will be added, and they will fight for their place in the team.”
‘I’m just proud to represent the Puerto Rican team.’
Boulden avoided the fight and is on the team. She left on May 28 for a week of practice in Puerto Rico, and the Americas Championship will be played in Buenos Aires, Argentina from June 7-11.
The event will feature the national teams from Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA and Venezuela. The top four teams from the continental championship will qualify to the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018.
“I’m just proud to represent the Puerto Rican team,” Boulden said. “I’m looking forward to playing the other teams and playing with new girls. I’ve never been to Puerto Rico. I want to see what it looks like. And I want to see what Argentina looks like.”
Boulden has some knowledge of certain aspects of Puerto Rican culture, saying, “I know a lot about Spanish food because my mother and my grandmother cook it a lot. I don’t know the language but I’m learning, and I know about the holidays and music.”
The main thing she knows about is basketball. She was given her first ball by her stepfather at age 2-1/2. Lewis, who played college football at Marshall, was teammates with Randy Moss and Chad Pennington, and knows a little bit about identifying good athletes. He could see it in Boulden.
“I saw a good athlete,” he said. “She was a good softball player, she was good in a lot of things. She was a really good softball player before she decided not to do it anymore. Basketball was the only thing she stuck with. So I saw a nice athletic young girl, and I could see the basketball being good.”
Boulden began playing with the boys at the YMCA. She then joined a Girl Scout League, began playing for the Hamilton PAL in fourth grade and the AAU Mavericks a year later.
“Then, it got serious,” she said.
Jennifer Caterson, the co-director of Hamilton PAL, was Boulden’s first coach. She saw the same thing that Dewayne did.
“Giana had a raw talent that could be seen even at that young of an age,” Caterson said. “I said it then and continued to say it as I watched her starting to grow into her talent; that I could not wait to see her play in high school. Giana is every coach’s dream player. She is polite, pays attention, and is a team player. Giana will do what is needed for the team.”
While attending Robinson Elementary School and Crockett Middle School, Boulden played in PAL for five years and Lewis credited Caterson and her next coach, Craig Haley, for helping to form Boulden as a player. Her AAU stops included the Philadelphia Belles, BBA Books and Basketball, the New Jersey Titans and now the Sparks.
A 5-foot-10 performer who can play the one, two or three, Boulden played mostly point guard for Trenton Catholic, which made her difficult to defend. She averaged 12 points and drained 30 3-pointers in 21 contests for a TCA team that went 13-10.
“I liked it,” she said of her first year with the young Iron Mikes. “It was a little difficult because our team wasn’t ready to play together, but we got through it. It was a good year.”
Now, the year will get even better as she gets set to experience international competition for the first time. Lewis said the final three weeks in May meant a heavy workload for Boulden as she had to complete all her schoolwork and finals. She is an honor student, and the school has been supportive in helping Boulden adjust her schedule.
“TCA is very proud of Giana Boulden making the Puerto Rican team,” athletic director Giancarlo Riotto said. “I’m looking forward to following her success on the Puerto Rican U16 National Basketball Team and the rest of her basketball career.”
Boulden’s achievement is not just a source of pride for her parents and TCA, but for the league in which she first started.
“Hamilton PAL is extremely proud of Giana’s accomplishments,” Caterson said. “To think that she was in fourth grade when she joined the league and the number of players that had the opportunity to have a teammate that is being honored in such a way, it’s just truly amazing.”
The former Hamilton West basketball standout added that this could be just the beginning of great things.
“If Giana continues to work hard and fully develops all of her raw talent, the sky is the limit for her,” Caterson said. “She is an amazing athlete and individual. I am looking forward to seeing all of her future accomplishments, because I know there will be more.”
Hamilton resident Giana Boulden, a freshman at Trenton Catholic, will represent Puerto Rico this month at the FIBA Americas Championship.,
