Ava Shaw's high school journey has left dots all over the map, but she's finally found her destination in the heart of downtown Winnipeg. 
 
Shaw, a 5-foot-10 guard from Daniel McIntyre, is the first commitment to Alyssa Cox's Winnipeg Wesmen women's basketball Class of 2026. 
 
Shaw, a member of multiple Manitoba provincial teams, has been mentioned in the MHSAA/Winnipeg Free Press rankings dating all the way back to her Grade 9 year when she played for the Oak Park Raiders. 
 
She moved over to DMCI in Grade 10, which marked her 11th school in her young life. 
 
Born in Nova Scotia, and then a B.C. resident for a year after that, Shaw came to Winnipeg when she was nine. It was then that she found her love for basketball and an affinity for the Winnipeg Wesmen. 
 
"It was immediately when we moved here, I just started getting into it," she said. "I just started watching Wesmen games at age 9, and ever since then I just wanted to be a Wesmen." 
 
In Grade 10, Shaw was ranked eighth in the province by high school coaches. She spent two years in the U15 provincial program — and U17 after that — and that combined with her experience in Basketball Manitoba's Targeted Athlete Program, which hones in on the province's elite prospects, told Shaw she had a shot at playing at the next level. 
 
"I think I just kind of was finding my scoring touch and feeling like I'm kind of a versatile guard," she said. "I'm not an average guard. I'm kind of a bigger build so I've just been put in different positions, and I was able to fit into all those different positions. Then once coaches kind of started talking to me, I just felt like, oh, they see it too, and I felt like we're both on the same page with that."
 
Shaw said Cox began talking to her in that Grade 9 season, which led Shaw to putting her tape out further. 
 
She tore her ACL, which wiped out her Grade 11 year, but that didn't stop her from keeping the goal of playing university basketball as a top priority. 
 
"I definitely took the game more serious, and I was grateful that I got the opportunity to play again," she said. "We got surgery so fast two weeks after it happened. And
after that, I just worked as hard as I could to get back because I just knew that post-secondary was still my goal, and no matter what the circumstances were, I was going to get there."
 
Cox has high hopes for the recruit she's been tracking for nearly five years. 
 
"We are so excited to be welcoming Ava to the program next season. Her scoring, court vision, and knowledge of the game will make her an instant contributor for us and someone we can build around moving forward," Cox said. "Over the past four years I've watched Ava train and compete for her school and club teams and what has stood out most of all is her unrelenting work ethic and desire to improve. She has all the makings of a future All-Canadian."
 
Shaw said Robyn Boulanger, a former five-year Wesmen and current assistant coach, has also influenced her.
 
"When I was younger, I had a couple inspirations, Robin being one of them. And I've been working with her for so long now and just getting really close with her. I think that
she really made me want to be a Wesmen because of the way she played, the way I saw everyone played with her."
 
And Cox's commitment meant a lot, too. 
 
"I just felt so confident in my choice. I knew Alyssa really well, we had so many conversations, and she never gave up on me during my ACL (rehab). And I just knew if someone has that much faith in me when I'm injured, how much faith could she have in me when I'm playing? So, yeah, I just felt like I was in the right place and the right time, and I just felt like I was ready to commit."