Cahill heads to Australia as journey continues to boomerang to basketball

Amanda Cahill remains smooth on the basketball court.

Her passport has changed quite a bit. First, she earned two regional crowns at Clyde.

She took a championship with her professional team in Europe this season. Now, it's time she took her game for a walkabout down under mate.

She heads to Australia, near Brisbane to play for Ipswich in the NBL1 North league for the first time this summer. Her boyfriend is set to play for the men's club team and Cahill was extended an offer by the women.

She plans to spend a week or two at home in the United States between seasons.

She's played 3½ seasons for Walferdange in the Luxembourg Basketball Federation. Another season was canceled by the pandemic.

"I've played with the same team," she said. "The first season, we hadn't won a game. When I got there in January, we were 0-12. The following years we've done well. The progress is impressive and being part of it is the biggest thing."

Luxembourg won the Cup Championship this year. Teams play in a single-elimination tournament during the season.

The finals and semifinals are in Luxembourg City.

"They take it seriously, the fans" she said. "We were up on the stage, spraying champagne. We were the underdog. Everybody was celebrating."

The team lost in the championship series in the postseason last year. It's the second seed this season, splitting the first two games in its opening round series.

Cahill needed four stitches to close a cut under her eye after an elbow with three minutes left in the last game.

If it advances, her trip home is delayed and her arrival in Australia likely postponed. She misses her family.

"That's probably the hardest part, not seeing them for months on end," she said. "This year I was home for Christmas. I've usually been home for the summer. It's nice with technology to FaceTime and call and text.

"It's hard, but it's not the worst thing."

She is a substitute teacher at the International School of Luxembourg a few times each week. Her students range from preschool to high school, depending on the day.

She started the arrangement her first full season.

"Some of the other international players did it and my background is education," she said. "Something I can put on my resumé from the classroom."

She might pursue opportunities to teach there in the future, while continuing to play, but those plans are undetermined. It's been a special journey, much of which she didn't see in advance.

"I came over expecting to play that first half season and maybe one more," she said. "I've enjoyed traveling and meeting awesome people. I've stopped saying it's my last year. I'm just going to see what happens."

She lives in an apartment in Steinsel.

"The other American girl lives a couple minutes away," she said. "We share a car. We have to communicate about who has the car."

Cahill is one of the two American players allowed per roster. She averages 24 points, 13.1 rebounds and 4 assists.

"There's some pressure to perform," she said. "I'm paid to do it. It's like a job. You don't want to have a bad day at work. It's not a situation where I feel like one bad game and I'll be fired. I haven't experienced that, but there's a level of pressure involved."

Cahill's teammates speak several languages apiece, including Luxembourgish, German, French and English. There are players who speak Finish, Arabic and Danish as their first language.

"I speak English and they communicate well even though it's their fourth or fifth language," she said.

Cahill's seen many countries in person.

"It's been interesting to travel around Europe," she said. "I'm in a central location. France, Belgium and Germany are pretty close. There's public transportation and flights."

She appreciates Barcelona, Spain.

"I like Spanish food," she said. "The culture. It's a neat city. It's on the beach. It's laid back, but there's a city feel as well. That was my first solo trip, then I went with my mom when she visited."

Going away to college is one thing. Europe on your own is another.

"Basic adulting stuff," she said. "No matter where you're at the first time after college, you learn. If you go to work. Meeting new people. That's the same here or in the States. It's figuring out adulthood and realizing you can do it with the support of my family.

"I'm grateful."

Cahill has never been particularly uncomfortable, but a language barrier occasionally presents challenges.

"I've tried to learn French," she said. "I don't speak very well. It can be hard to communicate in stores or restaurants, but I've learned enough to get by. Overall it's pretty similar [to the U.S.]. There are different brands.

"There's no Walmart. People are a little quieter than the average American. They're more reserved, especially compared to the Midwest. They don't approach you as easily as they do in say, Ohio."

She has Google Translate if necessary.

"Somebody [there] speaks enough English most times," she said.

She keeps tabs on the evolution of her sport for kids back home.

"It keeps being shown, if women's sports get equal coverage, they'll have equal viewers to men," she said. "People will watch and be involved. We need people to have the opportunity to watch and be fans. The fan base will grow."

She was second-team in the Big Ten three times, after scoring more than 2,000 points and collecting more than 1,000 rebounds for Clyde. She was player of the year four times in the Sandusky Bay Conference.

"My game's not too much different," she said. "I've worked on things to expand. Maybe I'm a little finer-tuned as I've gotten older."

She broke her ankle two seasons ago.

"Everybody spoke English well," she said of surgery. "When they rolled me in, they were speaking French and I didn't understand. That's intimidating, a little scary. That's when you realize you're in a foreign country."

mhorn@gannett.com

419-307-4892

Twitter: @MatthewHornNH

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Basketball allows Cahill to see the world after college