It seems that the Kodiaks not only have championship winning players on the girls’ basketball team but a strong contender and big heart in Jinan, a second-year guard from an unsuspecting place with an even more inspiring story.
Jinan Daqqa hails from Palestine where she was born, a mere 9,581 km from where she now hails in Lethbridge, Alta.
Daqqa has an interesting story to say the least, as a child she grew up in Palestine with a traditional Arabic family, later moving to North America with her family and finally setting up roots in Fort McMurray, something her family decided was a nice middle ground between their different cultures and ideals.
For Daqqa, growing up the way she did with caring parents and a close kit family on her side she bases her success and perseverance of three main staples, her love for her family, her love for her team and ultimately her love of the game.
“That team aspect really brings me back to my roots,” says Daqqa, “I love that feeling of closeness with the other girls, they are my family.” She states, recalling memories of her first year with the Lethbridge College Kodiaks.
At this point in her college career Daqqa truly can be seen as a notable basketball star on her team, she played the ACAC championship winning game in her second semester and spends any spare time she comes across practicing and cheering on her fellow teammates.
This view of Daqqa is a bit different then the early version of herself.
During her early years in Palestine, Daqqa recalls that basketball was never a sport that she had her eyes on, Daqqa initially wanted to play soccer, one of the more popular sports from her home town.
“My neighbors and I would put these baskets on top of these cement fences and we would driblet the soccer ball.” Says Daqqa “We would run around carrying it and shoot it into the basket.”
She alights recalling this moment, her eyes brighten and she twists the championship ring on her left index finger.
Something Daqqa has learned in her short time on earth and even shorter time in Canada is that perseverance and a positive attitude can mean everything to the way your life will play out.
“Winning nationals was huge, to be a first-year college basketball player and experience the best basketball in Canada and to watch some of the best players and practice with some of them, it was absolutely unreal.”
Daqqa, currently approaching the end of her second year and fourth semester within the college says that though she would now defend Lethbridge College to the ends of the earth, it wasn’t always her first choice.
“I actually hadn’t even had the college on my radar when I was looking at colleges.” I was invited to the ID Camp and absolutely fell in love with the team and the school.”
Daqqa truly feels that her time with the college was fate.
As she recalls the path that led her to where she is today, Daqqa shows no sadness or remorse at raging flames that played such a big impact during her last year of high school.
Tragedy ended up following Jinan’s family during the wildfires which struck the city back in 2016. On May 3, the horrendous blaze swept through the community of Fort McMurray, forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta’s history, with upwards of 88,000 people forced from their homes.
“I remember, the flames.” Says Daqqa, “The flames were the closest that they had ever been to me on that specific road on that specific spot, and now when I drive by even in the winter, with roads covered in snow, I just see the flames.”
“I actually had my bag ready for ID Camp at the college, I had my bag packed, I had my shoes, my shorts, my basketball. I was set I was ready to go.”
Daqqa is currently out of playing shape with a career halting injury but hopes to get back into the swing of things next semester when she takes on an all new playing field at Mount Royal University where she’ll be studying Physical Therapy, a love she recently discovered.
