MARQUETTE Now that their playing careers at Northern Michigan University have come to an end, Wildcats seniors Alyssa Colla and Lauren Gruber will be taking their talents to the land down under.

The two basketball players have signed one-year contracts to play with the Cairns Dolphins of the Queensland Basketball League in Australia.

Both players are excited for the opportunity to play at the professional level in another country.

“It’s really cool,” Colla said. “We’ve been talking about possibly playing overseas throughout the season, especially at the end. It usually doesn’t start in Europe until the end of September and then this came about.

“It’s cool that we get the chance to do that and get to do what we had planned for next year, too.

“In high school, I thought it would be so cool to play professionally or overseas someday,” she added. “It has always been a dream of mine.”

Gruber agreed with her teammate’s feelings.

“A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to play overseas and it’s great that we get a chance to play together on the same team and further our careers,” she said. “That aspect of it is really unique.”

“After our season, we really didn’t feel like we had closure and things didn’t go the way we exactly wanted. It’s hard to let go of something you’ve worked hard at for four years.”

Colla has never been to another country, but Gruber has visited Europe before. This will be a different experience, though, and she likes the fact Australia’s winter is vastly different than the Upper Peninsula.

“I’ve only ever been to Germany, but other than that, not anywhere tropical,” Gruber said. “I found out that (Australia’s) winter is around 65-80 degrees, so this will be a fun experience.”

To play in the pros, the two ballers had to go an interesting route to market themselves, including getting an agent.

“We had to make highlight films and they were on YouTube,” Colla said. “One of the assistant coaches for the team that we are going to play for Facebook- messaged me and I got talking to them through that way.

“I brought up Lauren to them and they said they needed another guard, so they took both of us. “

Both players have future plans that go beyond playing basketball, but they both want to have a career in athletics.

Gruber is planning to go to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after the Dolphins’ season wraps up in late August.

“It’ll be a really quick turnaround for me,” she said. “Right after (NMU’s) graduation, we’ll be flying out to Australia and we will be there May, June, July and August.

“We’ll probably get back around Aug. 31 and then I go to grad school Sept. 2. It’ll definitely be really fast.”

Colla is also planning to go to grad school, but she wants to pursue a coaching career.

“I really want to go into coaching,” she said. “I’m not exactly sure where to go yet, but probably the University of Dubuque because I have a graduate assistant job set up there.

“I’m going to do the same thing as Lauren, grad school for a couple of years and get some schooling under my belt and go from there.”

Grad school is a few months away though, so right now, both are focusing on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play pro basketball overseas and to see a new place.

“I just want to go for the experience,” Colla said.

“Obviously I want to win and all that over there, but I’m just looking forward to being in a different country and exploring over there. It’s going to be fun.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.