Sarah Mozley

It’s been just over two weeks since Laina Snyder moved from America to Perth to play for the Willetton Tigers, and so far she is loving her new home.

“I love it, it reminds me a lot of Southern California which is a place that I always liked very much from America,” Snyder said.

“I learned quickly about the sun, my first training I showed up and they called me ‘lobster’, but I have since bought and applied sunscreen very often!”

Snyder gives credit to her new teammates for helping her settle in so easily.

“The people have been very nice, the team’s been amazing, welcoming me in and making me feel part of the team… I love spending time with them,” Snyder said.

Growing up in Ohio, basketball has been a “family affair” for Snyder.

She started playing when she was about seven years old, following in the footsteps of her older sister and mum who also played the sport.

She continued throughout high school and college and is now venturing into the next step of her career with the Tigers.

It is both her first-time playing basketball outside of college and her first-time leaving North America.

Snyder says she is grateful to have the opportunity to continue playing basketball.

“I knew I wasn’t finished playing basketball and in America after college there’s really no opportunity besides the WNBA,” Snyder said.

“My coach had played in this league about five years ago, so I knew about it, so when this opportunity from Willetton came up I jumped at it right away because it allowed me to continue playing this game.

“Also, I’ve always wanted to travel to Australia, so this gave me a really good reason to.”

Tigers fans have a lot to look forward to from Snyder, who describes herself as a fast, aggressive, versatile player.

“I like to play first, I like to play aggressive, that’s how we played in college, and I am more of a back to the basket type of post player but I also enjoy shooting threes so I like to have a lot of range whenever I play to make it harder for the defence to guard me,” Snyder said.