Double Duty: Ellie Lancaster’s Return to Basketball

For most student-athletes, balancing one varsity sport and a full university course load is already enough of a challenge. For Ellie Lancaster, the goalposts are set a little wider. Already a standout goalkeeper for the AUS Champion CAPERS Women’s Soccer team, Ellie is currently undertaking a rare feat in university athletics: playing two sports in a single season while simultaneously pursuing two degrees and thriving at it.

“I am doing my Bachelor of Arts with a major in Poli Sci, but I am also doing my Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Legal Studies,” Ellie says while laughing. “I’m a bit of a high achiever.”

The Decision to Return

Lancaster didn’t plan on being a dual-sport athlete when she arrived at CBU, choosing to centre her focus on soccer. Playing both sports since her youth, basketball had always been a huge part of her life. However, the itch to return to the court never fully went away.

Her journey back to the court started as a joke with Doug Connors, assistant coach of the women’s basketball team, asking when she was finally coming to practice. ‘I am here if you need me,’ Ellie would tell him. But the banter turned serious when she sat down with head coach Fabian McKenzie to discuss the idea.

“I talked to him in December and I told him ‘Give me over Christmas break to work on my skills, see where I’m at, see if this was something I could physically do,” Ellie says. “After thinking about it, I was like, ‘I would regret this if I didn’t give it a shot.’”

A Different Kind of Fitness

The transition from the pitch to the hardwood wasn’t seamless. While goalkeeping requires explosive power and short-distance agility, basketball demands a different kind of engine.

“Fitness was a big aspect for me,” Ellie says. “Like running in practices and doing five-on-five, I would be gassed. As a goalkeeper, it is a lot of up and down fitness and diving here and there, but it is not a lot of running. Physically, after the first practice, I thought, ‘Did I get hit by a truck?’ It is a different playing surface, too, which is a lot harder on your body.”

The Goalkeeper Advantage

Despite the conditioning curve, Lancaster found that her skills in goal translated surprisingly well to the court. The aggression required to attack a cross or command a penalty area is the same grit needed to box out for a rebound.

“As a goalkeeper, I see everything. I can lead from the back,” she says. “So, coming in, I thought I could bring that leadership mentality. I feel like my goal is just to come in and work hard and that is boxing out, rebounding and doing all I can to support the team. You gotta have grit.”

Family Rivalry

The highlight of her return wasn’t just wearing the CAPERS orange, but facing a familiar opponent. Her older sister, Grace Lancaster, a fifth-year player for UPEI, was on the other side of the court this season.

“My parents were there watching, cheering us both on. It was a pretty unique and cool experience that not many people get to do because I have grown up playing with her my whole life on the same team and now I was going against her,” Lancaster says.

When Ellie told her family she decided to return to the basketball court, that support remained constant. Her father and sister even helped her run drills over the Christmas break to get back in playing shape.Despite being in competition, Ellie says Grace was supportive of the decision to return to the court. 

“She was supportive, but she knew it was going to be a lot on me, physically. She told me ‘Just go and have fun with it.’”

That family dynamic, one that prioritizes effort over outcome, instilled a drive to achieve in Ellie. She describes her parents as her “biggest support system,” willing to travel anywhere to watch her and her sister play. While they instilled a “strive high” mentality by leading by example, her father, a coach and her mother, a former UPEI Panthers basketball alum, Ellie says they never demanded perfection.

“It’s not that you have to be the best, but they always taught us to try our best, and my sister and I got pretty far off that.”

Academic All-Canadian

For Ellie, the drive to succeed isn’t limited to athletics. She was recently named an Academic All-Canadian and views the 80 per cent average required for the distinction as a baseline rather than a ceiling. 

“I think I have put the bar for myself a little too high,” she says. “Below 80% is a failure in my head.”

That pressure is self-imposed and born from a desire to maximize her time at CBU. With two degrees and two varsity sport schedules, downtime has become a foreign concept. When asked if she has any free time, Ellie laughs.

“It is lacking a little bit right now,” she says.

But for a self-described high achiever, the heavy workload is a feature rather than a bug. She sees the dual degree in Arts and Business Administration as a calculated move for her future, saying she wants to ensure that whatever happens in life, she has knowledge to fall back on.

No Regrets

For Ellie, this season isn’t about proving she is the best basketball player on the floor. It is about maximizing her time as a student-athlete and setting an example for the young players she coaches in the community. To her, multiple sports, multiple academic disciplines isn’t a balancing act, it’s her way of staying true to herself and her goals.

“Sports can take you so far in life. But eventually, every bone in my body is going to be hurting and I am going to have something else to do,” she says. “But while you can – play all you can. You don’t have to pick one sport or one path.”