SASKATOON, Sask. – The last time is now Gage Grassick, when it comes to her career with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Basketball Team.
Entering the current 2025-26 campaign, the 23-year-old fifth-year point guard has cemented herself as one of the all-time greats in the history of the Huskies program. The Prince Albert product is playing her final U Sports season and is living up to the lofty heights she established in the past.
In helping the Huskies get out to a 10-0 start in regular season play, Grassick is averaging 18.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game. Her points per game total ranks second in the Canada West Conference, and her assists per game total tops the conference.
The Huskies regular season resumes on January 9, 2026, when they travel to Edmonton to face the U of Alberta Pandas (10-0). If the Huskies make it back to the U Sports title game looking to repeat as champs, that contest will be played on March 8, 2026 at the Universite Laval in Quebec City. Grassick’s time as an active player with the Huskies is limited to about two-and-a-half months, and that reality is in the back of her mind.
“It is so special being able to play on a team like this for five years,” said Grassick. “I was a COVID kid, so this is my sixth year on the team.
“It is just so special. Something like this you never want to give up. This team, this culture, the atmosphere, the coaches just make you better every single game (and) every single practice.
“Now that it is kind of nearing the end, it is one of those things that you don’t really think about, but you’re just so grateful for every moment.”
Grassick officially joined the Huskies in the fall of 2020 after graduating from Carlton Comprehensive High School in June of that same year. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that had gripped the world, she started taking the court for the Huskies when all of U Sports was allowed to return to action in the 2021-22 campaign.
Last season, Grassick had a dream campaign. On March 16, Grassick fired home a game high 35 points to go with seven assists, seven rebounds and three steals in an 85-66 victory over the Carleton University Ravens in the U Sports title game held at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver, B.C. She was named the MVP of the U Sports Championship Tournament and a tournament all-star.
That alone could have been the highlight of the season, but Grassick seemingly won every individual award she could on the campaign. She was named a Canada West first team all-star, the Canada West player of the year, a U Sports first team all-Canadian all-star, the Nan Copp Award winner as the U Sports player of the year, the Mary Ethel Cartwright Trophy winner as the Huskies female athlete of the year, and the Lois Mitchell Award winner as the overall U Sports female athlete of the year.
“It was special, but none of that would have been possible without my teammates,” said Grassick, who stands 5-foot-8. “I will say this every time every credit and every award I won is not an individual award.
Gage Grassick makes a pass transitioning the ball up the court for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Basketball Team in a U Sports regular season contest on November 22 at the Physical Activity Complex in Saskatoon. Grassick has one semester to play in her storied career with the Huskies.
“It is a team award, and you can’t win those personal accolades without your team. We were so special last year that there were 10 people on the team that could have won every single one of those awards as well. At the end of the day, that is why we were ending up with that Bronze Baby in our hands, and that is just what made us so incredible.”
With all that Grassick has accomplished in her career, legendary Huskies head coach Lisa Thomaidis is trying to block out the fact the star guard is about to start her final semester with the team to begin a stretch run that ends her career.
“I don’t want to think about that at all,” said Thomaidis. “She has been an absolutely incredible athlete, player, but probably most important and most valuable for us is her leadership.
“Just her positivity, she makes everyone else better. Her impact on this team over the course of her career has been immense. She is the engine that drives our team.”
Thomaidis said Grassick is building off what she accomplished a season ago in the current campaign.
“Last year, she really peaked at the end of the season,” said Thomaidis. “She was absolutely outstanding in the Can-West Championship and National Championship and played at another level.
“Earlier in the (2024-25) season, she was obviously very good, but at the end, she was incredible. I do think she has picked up where she has left off. She shot the ball really well.
“Again, she is just so smart like the passes that she delivers right on people’s hands when they need it (and) where they need it. She just contributes in so many different ways at both ends of the court. It is just seldom that you ever see a player have so many ways that she can hurt (the opponent).”
Grassick did experience heartbreak the first time she went to a U Sports title game with the Huskies. On March 10, 2024 at the Saville Centre in Edmonton, the Huskies dropped a 70-67 decision to the Ravens in the U Sports final. That loss made the Huskies victory a year later in a rematch between those two squads feel that much sweeter.
“That is what every athlete dreams of when that buzzer hits, zeroes (on the clock) and you get to see that trophy walk out,” said Grassick, who is studying in U of S’s College of Pharmacy and Nutrition. “It is all the work that has paid off.
“You see your teammates every single day in the gym working not only in the basketball gym, but in the weight room and mentally and physically. It is just all those things that people don’t see behind closed doors that athletes do work towards. It has just been so special just to see that.
“Last year, we were so grateful to win that and hoping to put in that work to hopefully see the same outcome. (We are) just focusing each day on getting better.”
While playing for the Huskies, Grassick said the players strive to grow as people and be positive members of the community. She hopes what she has been able to do will help inspire the communities she has lived in and the players that are coming up in the game.
Away from the Huskies, Grassick represented Canada for the first time this past summer on the international stage. She helped Canada’s women’s team win bronze at the FIBA U23 3×3 Nations League competition played in Chile in July. On August 17, Grassick was a member of Canada’s women’s 3×3 team that beat Mexico 18-13 to win gold at the Junior Pan American Games in Luque, Paraguay.
Gage Grassick hits an inside jumper for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Basketball Team in a U Sports regular season contest on November 22 at the Physical Activity Complex in Saskatoon. Grassick has one semester to play in her storied career with the Huskies.
With those experiences under her belt, Grassick has had people ask her about turning professional once her Huskies days are done. For now, she is focusing on the present.
“To be honest, I haven’t really thought about it much,” said Grassick. “(I am) kind of just trying to keep this year in the vision and not look too far ahead.
“(I am) soaking up every moment and never regretting looking in the future. Everyone kind of asks me, and at the moment, I really don’t have an answer, which is unfortunate. (I am) just taking it one day at a time, and then afterwards just seeing what opportunities present themselves.”
Darren Steinke is a Saskatoon-based freelance sportswriter and photographer. He blogs frequently at stankssermon.blogspot.com.
