Another Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs product will be heading to Lloydminster to play college basketball.

Graduating point guard Bethany Montebon has signed with the Lakeland College Rustlers of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference where she'll join former ECS teammate Sarah Dacuycuy for the 2021-22 season.

Montebon will go from not playing a senior season due to the pandemic to college basketball.

"It'll be a big change. I am pretty nervous. But it's also really exciting to get out of the city and everything; get to meet new people. It's a really exciting, but obviously nerve-wracking part of your life. I'm just excited to play basketball again."

Montebon will be in a university transfer program for a bachelor of sciences and nursing. She plans to spend a year or two in the border city before switching to the University of Saskatchewan, where she's not sure yet whether she hopes to continue playing basketball.

The Rustlers are slated to start training in September. Montebon hopes they can begin on time, but wouldn't be surprised if things are pushed back.

The Medicine Hat Rattlers also made Montebon an offer, but the Rustlers won her over.

"I got to meet the teams a little bit more, and I just decided that Lloydminster was pretty much a perfect fit for me. I really liked their program, their team... I just loved their energy and how welcoming they were. I loved all the girls and the coaches and how they pushed one another. It was sort of an easy choice to make, honestly, with my former teammate being there as well."

Montebon said the past year has been tough, as they had a group of five players on the team that had been together since Grade 9.

"It was a big transition from my Grade 9 year to my Grade 10 year. We also had five seniors this year and in my Grade 9 year. So we lost a lot in Grade 9 year. Grade 10 was a big developing year for me. And then Grade 11 was also a big developing year for the team itself. We did so well that year, I was looking forward to my Grade 12 year, seeing what was going to come out of it."

The group hasn't been a stranger to speculation over what a Grade 12 season with that core together would have yielded.

"It's just all been a bunch of 'what if.' 'What if we went to provincials this year? What would it have been like? What would McLeod have been like?' We were just making up all these scenarios that we missed out on. Since I came to high school, I made the team my Grade 9 year, so I've been looking forward to this year my entire high school career really. It just sucks that I got to miss out on it."

Another graduating Elecs player is off to the college ranks as well for basketball. Kishi Rioferio has signed with the Providence Pilots in Otterburne, Man.