Malta is a small country located south of Sicily in the Mediterranean. Its strategic location between the Roman and Greek empires made it an ideal naval port and key trading post during the reign of Julius Caesar. Fast forward two thousand years and it is now the hub of basketball frenzy, led by Idaho State University’s own Ashleigh Vella.
Vella, a dual citizen of both Malta and Australia and a forward for the ISU Bengals, spent her summer representing Malta in the FIBA European Championship for Small Countries. Winning the Bronze medal at the tournament was an experience Vella ranks high on her list of achievements.
“It’s always a great experience to go and play for your country. It was a little disappointing not winning the gold because we’re all really competitive and I always want to win. But I think in terms of my [biggest achievements] the Big Sky Championship is always going to be at the top,” said Vella.
Vella’s competitive fire was inherited from her father’s homeland.
“Malta is always proud of us no matter what we do, but I think in their eyes they would have liked to see us come home with the gold,” said Vella.
Playing against teams like Austria, which features several professional players, is an experience that Vella feels will pay dividends once the season starts.
“Most players spend their whole summer working out and I get to play and experience a different competition level,” said Vella.
Vella, a senior, will be one of the leaders of the ISU basketball program and her contribution will be key to the Bengals retaining their Big Sky Championship. Her experience in Malta helped to highlight some areas where she feels that she needs to improve.
“I need to work on being more of a scoring threat; I averaged 10 points per game [while representing Malta], but I need to step up more offensively. My leadership is going to be very important. We’re not a young team anymore, we’re actually pretty old compared to the Big Sky and we have high expectations,” said Vella. “We want to continue having a good home record, ideally we want to be undefeated.”
Along with high expectations comes the realization that this year ISU is going to have to go without the contributions of Chelsea Pickering. Her scoring will be missed but Vella hopes to help fill the void, along with key contributors off the bench like Blair Brady and Kara Jenkins. If they are successful, ISU will prove that last year was no fluke.
Vella is majoring in sports management with a coaching minor. Her experiences playing for the national team and Idaho State University are helping her decide how she will approach the game once she’s on the sidelines.
“Not only do I get to see different competitions and different coaching styles, but I get to see ‘Oh, I like the way he does that,’ or ‘I don’t like the way he talks to his players’ and I pick up different things that are going to help me decide how I want to coach,” said Vella.
Vella plans to continue playing for Malta’s national team in upcoming tournaments.
