Living on an acreage their whole life, Bailey and Sydney Tabin aren’t your typical basketball players
The twins from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan spent their early years living the simple prairie lifestyle. Getting up at dawn (or earlier), bailing, wood burning and all other farming activities. But their love for Basketball landed them a long way from home.
Sydney and Bailey grew up in a close-knit family, the middle children between 2 boys. The twins quickly learned the pros and cons of having a built-in best friend. Anything from matching outfits to having to share a combined birthday gift isn’t your typical sibling experience.
But as Bailey and Sydney describe, the reality of having someone who always has your back and never having to both go into a changing room while shopping is an experience that could only be understood by doing.
Growing up, their competitiveness pushed them. Both wanting to play with, and against each other, drove them to play every sport imaginable. It was running, track and field, and even wrestling, but in grade 7 they both played basketball in a spring league and they knew that was it.
Basketball was their true love.
From there, it was playing high school basketball, a local Saskatoon club, and even making the U17 provincial team. Through it all, they always had each other.
Being the competitive athletes that they are, it was natural that at every level it was “what’s next” for the Tabin girls - where are they going to play after high school? Both had individual and paired recruitment offers from multiple schools. When touring Mount Royal in Calgary, Sydney loved the coach and the school enough that she quickly could envision herself there.
Although she looked at Mount Royal, Bailey also wanted to focus on achieving another goal of getting a degree in Forensic Science. With Laurentian having one of the few accredited Forensic Science programs and with a historic basketball program, that she pointed out paints the Ben Avery gym walls, the small-town prairie girl packed up and moved to Northern Ontario.
Being in different time zones would last only two years for the twins, as Sydney was not 100% sure about her field of study and found herself looking around at other programs. Her interest in nursing paired with the difficulty of course transfers meant she had the opportunity to restart a 4-year degree anywhere. Bailey knew her twin sister so well as she was able to convince her that Sudbury and the LU women’s basketball team were the places for her.After Sydney had to sit out the 2019-2020 season because of transfer regulations and a global pandemic, the twins were finally reunited on the court together after 2 long years. As they are now well into their last season of on-court U-SPORT action together, the girls look back at the journey that they have travelled and to their possible future careers.
Wherever they travel next, the hard-earned lessons of farming, the demanding schedules of varsity athletes, and their shared experiences will surely drive them toward success.