July 8, 2010
BRONX, N.Y. - Sophomore forward Charlotte Stoddart (Manchester, England/Loreto School) will represent Fordham and her home country of Great Britain at the U20 European Championships from July 16-20 in Kavadarci, Macedonia.
Stoddart is part of the 15-person, GB Standard Life Under-20 squad, coached by Damian Jennings and will travel Europe throughout the month of July, vying for the European Basketball Division B title.
In June, Stoddart attended the first-ever GB men's and women's combined camp to weed out competitors for the Division B Championship teams. The teams were cut from 20 to 15 after four days of assessment at the camps. This is her sixth summer playing on one of Great Britain's international competition squads as she has also played two seasons on both Great Britain's U18 and U16 teams, as well as the GB U20 2009 national team.
"I am very proud and excited for Charlotte to have the opportunity to represent her country in the U20 European Championships. It is great for our program and the school that we can boast the talent of an international player such as Charlotte," noted Fordham women's basketball coach Cathy Andruzzi. "She has high expectations with her goal to compete at the highest level. Her work ethic, consistency and poise, separates her from her peers. I loved coaching Charlotte this past year, she is competitive, willing to learn and loves playing basketball. Playing on the international stage for the past five summers has been an asset to her maturity and development. I will be rooting for her from across the pond!"
Joining Stoddart on the GB Standard Life U20 squad from other United States Division I collegiate programs are: Mairi Buchan and Rebecca Allison (Old Dominion), Mary Durojaye (Robert Morris), Kashmere Joseph (Seton Hall), Katrin Chiemeka (Davidson), and Kathryn Taylor (Colgate).
On July 6, Stoddart and the team started their quest for a European Championship title with a 70-35 exhibition victory over Austria in Baden, Austria. In the second game against Austria on July 7, Stoddart netted seven points. Hannah Shaw and Mairi Buchan led the scoring with ten points each.
Stoddart and the GB squad moves on to Bulgaria for a pair of friendly games on Saturday and Sunday ahead of their European Championship Division B opener.
The real competition gets started on July 16 in Kavadarci, Macedonia, against Belgium at 4:30 p.m. (Central European Summer Time)/10:30 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time).
Stoddart and the rest of the U20 Great Britain Squad will then play Hungary on July 17, host team Macedonia on July 18 and the Czech Republic on July 20.
FordhamSports.com will be following Stoddart and her travels around Europe through a Charlotte Watch blog. Stoddart will update us from "across the pond" on her travels, games and time adjustments.
