About Me Jan Viado

The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amatuer sports organization that is based in the United States. Their purpose is to showcase the talent of young players in amateur sports, including basketball. I had the privelege to play all my summers throughout highschool in AAU tournaments. It gave me the opportunity to play against the best players in my age group and travel around the U.S with my family and teammates.

Training for these tournaments during the summer was tough work, but developed me as a basketball player well. I played for Canada Elite from the summers between 2013-2015. I then played with Brampton Bounce from 2015-2017, and later with Advantage Titans during the summer of 2018. Throughout my AAU career, I got a couple of looks from American schools. A division 3 NCAA school in Conneticut was in contact with me as they had interest in my aggresive defence.

In 2018, I committed to the University of Toronto Mississuaga (UTM) Eagles to play in the OCAA and work on my bachelor's degree. This decision was not easy, but choosing UTM allowed me to achieve a high education, as well as be able to perform and improve to the best of my ability on the basketball court. My first 2 years playing for UTM were unforgettable as I felt that this stage was meant for me. It opened up new oppourtunities for me and allowed me to connect with so many people.

In late 2020, COVID-19 unfortunately caused the termination of the varsity athletic program for UTM, leaving more than 80 student-athletes unable to play their sport. This left many student-athletes, including me, to make the decision of transferring schools, or continuing without sports. During the 2021-2022 school year, tri-campus development league was returning to UTM which was the only option for remaining UTM atheltes to play their sport. I was lucky enough to be able to play and be coached by Coach Brian Hutton. I was able to actually win a championship from the league and was later awarded as the basektball team female MVP, and the Fair Play award for my final atheletic season at UTM.

Coach Hutton was hired as a head coach at Georgian College and had recruited me from UTM to play this upcoming fall in 2022. I will continue my studies in a Mental Health graduate studies program at Georgian College while playing under Coach Hutton and the Georgian Grizzlies Women's Basketball Team.

As life was slowly getting back to normal from COVID-19, I was blessed to be able to start training with Mathushan Sri from Underdog Athletics. Knowing me from a young age, he developed my game mentally and phyiscally. I was able to meet and compete with a variety of players which helped me improve a lot.

The Underdog League allowed me to start competing at a high level again since pre-COVID. I competed in the first 2 seasons of the Underdog Men's League. Playing against male athletes helped me become a stronger player and be more aggressive. Underdog Athletics later continued with the first Underdog Women's League season in which my team ended up placing third in the league. During my first game of the season, I scored 34 points overall and finished with 20 points per game throughout the season.

In 2021, where OUA was cleared on retruning to sport, I was desperate to play somewhere. I was able to try-out for the UofT St.George Varsity team. After try-outs I made the varisty team as a walk-on (an achievement that is not accomplished by many atheltes that try-out for a varsity team). I was able to play with the team for a month, but had to step away due to not being able to find affordable housing in downtown Toronto, and financial issues. Regardless, I was thankful that the UofT Blues accepted me and allowed to play with them for that time, which was something I was missing during lockdown.