Tyler Fidler: A man of many positions
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Although he stands at 6’9, Tyler Fidler can play almost any position on the floor but is listed as a guard. That extreme height has caused a lot of matchup problems in the Canada West conference.
After graduating from Western Canada High School in Calgary Tyler decided to stay in Calgary and become a Dino at the University of Calgary.
Only one year after playing with the Dino’s Tyler had earned some respectable hardware earning Canada West Rookie of the Year, was named to the CIS All-Rookie team and was the University of Calgary Male rookie of the year.
Every season since joining the Dino’s Tyler has been improving and working towards a national championship. Last season the Dino’s were poised to make a run at the Canada West title and be in the top four team mix. Unfortunately their point guard Jared Ogungbemi-Jackson was injured and unable to lead them.
Not all was a loss last year; Fidler still believes it was a good learning experience. “I thought last season was probably the toughest season in my career. We had some issues with injuries, and we lost our starting point guard for the season which really hurt our results. It was quite a bit different than the years before where we made it to nationals or were in the Canada west finals. The last year was definitely a tough year but it was a good learning experience.”
Along with playing the two and three positions Tyler is also developing the four position to his arsenal, making him that much more dangerous on the court. He also feels that he has developed a lot in the last year.
“In this past year I think I developed a lot, in terms of playing down low, it’s the first time in my career that I was playing the four, so I had to learn a lot about playing down low and about my new footwork and how to use my body better”
This summer has been filled with events, travelling, training and fun. Tyler travelled around at the beginning of the summer to Maui where he coached at a basketball camp for nine days. Following Maui it was a short break then he went to Tennessee for a music festival. He says that his travelling is done for the summer but will be journeying to Kelowna for a festival and a four on four tournament which will give him a chance to play with some old teammates again.
Not only has he been coaching but training hard with the Dino’s new strength coach who has worked with the Calgary Flames and has been beneficial to Tyler’s growth of strength. He is also going to the gym everyday and shooting around to continue to get better.
Moving forward to next season Tyler knows that this next year should be extremely competitive in the Canada West and he is extremely excited about it. “I am really excited, I think it’s going to be one of those all around competitive years. Saskatchewan is really good, Trinity is really good, and both UBC and Lethbridge will be tough again. It will be a really even year, but I think with the team we have coming in we have a chance to be in the top or the final four at least. I think it will be competitive but I am really confident that we will be good coming in.”
Following his 5th year Tyler would like to play basketball abroad. “I am going to look into playing overseas. A few of our alumni are playing in Holland right now and I’m going to try and get on with the same agency as them. I don’t have a citizenship so it might be tougher to get over there but I might go play over there for a few years and see how it goes.”
Look out for #24 of the Calgary Dino’s as they try to bring back a Canada West title and make a push for the CIS Final 8 in the 2011/2012 season.
Photo Courtsey: University of Calgary/ University of Calgary Dino’s – Basketball
