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Sports
Home Court Hero
Sabry Philip’s journey home is bigger than basketball
When Sabry Philip stepped
onto theEdmonton Expo Centre
court in a Stingers’ jersey for the
season opener on Mother’s Day, it
was fitting on so many levels. After
an eight-year journey, from TRC
Academy in Ontario to New York’s
Stony Brook Seawolves in the
NCAA’s elite Division 1, the 24-year-
old Edmonton-born talent came
home to play for the city’s Cana-
dian Elite Basketball League team.
For the first time in years, Philip
sang “O Canada” before tip-off.
“To this day, it brings chills down
my spine just thinking about it,” he
recalls. “It’s been quite a journey.
A lot of ups and downs.”
The 6’4” guard had to overcome
four surgeries during his college
basketball career. His final year
was particularly challenging —
battling injuries while competing
at the top level of collegiate sports
and juggling the start of an MBA
program. During those low points,
Philip says he was motivated by the
sacrifices of his parents, who fled
war-torn South Sudan in 2000, es-
pecially his mother, who raised him
as a single parent. In fact, it was
his mother who first introduced
him to basketball, setting up a hoop
in the basement as an alternative
to the Bugs Bunny cartoons he
devoured as a child. “I didn’t want
to have anything to do with it,”
Philip says with a laugh. But after
watching Space Jam — which
starred legend Michael Jordan and
his beloved Bugs Bunny — he was
hooked. “I loved the way [Jordan]
was able to fly in the sky. He just
seemed almost like a superhero.”
It wasn’t until after he went off
to the University of San Diego on
a basketball scholarship that the
Stingers played their inaugural
game with the newly established
Canadian Elite Basketball Leaugue
in 2019, soon becoming league
champions in 2020 and 2021. That
was in part thanks to its all-star
hometown hero Jordan Baker, who
also happened to coach Philip at
Harry Ainlay High School.
Philip is only the second
Edmontonian to suit up for the
team since Baker retired in 2022.
(The first, Aher Uguak, now plays
in Germany.) Though Philip says
he feels no pressure to be the new
hometown hero, he knows first-
hand how a local success story
can inspire. He remembers going
to University of Alberta Golden
Bears’ games and lining up for
an autograph from Baker. And it
was Baker, now the Stingers' head
coach and general manager, who
recruited Philip as a guard.
“He was always a great person
with a contagious smile that
players and people gravitated
towards,” says Baker, recalling his
high school talents. A natural and
gifted athlete, he says success on
the court, back then, came easily
for Philip.
The team also recently signed
another homegrown talent, Fareed
Shittu, fresh off his college career,
hoping the 6’6” forward will help
bring home another championship
title this fall. Now that Philip and
Shittu are finally home, they’re
excited to inspire another gener-
ation of athletes to follow in their
sneakersteps. ED.
–Karen Kwan
photo RYAN PARKER
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