For Maisie Harrhy, basketball has played a big role in her life since the age of 11, when she joined the Cardiff Met Archers and quickly progressed through the junior age groups. Competing came naturally to Maisie as she joined local club Vale Vipers, where she worked on her game competing against her male counterparts, and earned a spot representing Wales on numerous occasions. In 2018 and 2019, Maisie captained Wales in the U16 FIBA European Championships.With a successful time at junior level which included a league title in the U16 age group, Maisie stepped up to senior women’s basketball in 2018 at the age of 15. She quickly became a cemented player in the Archers women’s second team and in no time started to demonstrate her leadership qualities. As one of the starting 5 for the senior women, Maisie was pivotal in the team being crowned Basketball England National League Division 2 champions and gaining promotion to Division 1 in 2020.

Maisie joined St David’s College in 2019, where she studied A-Level PE, Biology and Psychology and was also part of the honours programme. Her move to St David’s enabled her to continue to train around her timetable and have easier access to the facilities and individual workouts at Cardiff Met. The link between The Archers and St David’s was strengthened in 2019, when Cardiff Met Archers coach, Sarah Wagstaff began coaching the women’s basketball provision at St David’s.

Due to her work ethic and established place in the Cardiff Archers, Maisie has been a role model for fellow students at St David’s and those looking to follow in her footsteps.

In the 2020-2021 season, Maisie made her debut with the WBBL team as her countless hours of individual workouts, strength and conditioning and early mornings came into fruition. Having only just stepped up to this level, with much more room to grow, Maisie had the fantastic news this year of a full scholarship to Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut, USA.

Coach, Sarah Wagstaff, said “Playing basketball in the States has been an ambition of Maisie’s for a long time and so we were all very happy for her when she heard the news that she had been offered a scholarship at PSA. Maisie will head to Connecticut at the end of the summer to join the school and we are looking forward to watching her progress even further”.