Moving to Eugene from Portland can be too much for some to handle.
Moving to Eugene from Australia? Unthinkable for most.
For Eleanor Haring, however, the move across the world was just part of playing the game she loves: basketball.
As a freshman on the Oregon women’s basketball team, Haring has been able to contribute immediately as one of the most experienced newcomers the Ducks have ever had.
Unlike many freshmen, Haring was well prepared for the college-bound venture.
Haring’s family moved from Rochester, Australia, to Perth when she was 8 years old, and she started playing competitive basketball at age 11.
At 16, Haring moved away from home to attend the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, located roughly 2,200 miles east of Perth.
She spent her first year at AIS finishing the 12th grade and playing basketball. Her second year was spent working in the institute’s department of nutrition while she and the rest of the basketball team competed as the only amateur squad in the eight-team Women’s National Basketball League.
Haring said moving away from her family at a young age helped make the transition to college in the United States a lot easier.
“It probably would have been a bit different if I hadn’t gone away for those two years,” Haring said. “I don’t think the transition would have been that smooth. But since I’d been through that, it was really easy for me to come over here and get into the swing of things.”
Several U.S. colleges showed interest in Haring while she was at AIS because of her tremendous — yet raw — athletic ability.
Oregon head coach Bev Smith was one of those interested in the 6-foot-1 forward. Smith knew the AIS women’s basketball senior coach, Phil Brown, enabling her to start a relationship with Haring over the phone. After several calls, Haring decided Oregon was where she wanted to go, making her the fifth Australian native to play for the Ducks since 1997.
It didn’t take long for Haring to adjust to life in Eugene once she arrived in 2003. The noted hamburger lover said the city has many similarities to her homeland, with the only differences being the weather and countless high-calorie food options.
“Eugene is actually very similar to Perth,” Haring said. “People are very friendly … (but) there’s so much fast food here. I’m not used to having Wendy’s and every fast food place imaginable.”
Regardless of her surroundings, Haring has always been focused on improving herself as a
basketball player. She grew up training almost every day, working to harness her abundance of natural athletic ability.
It is Haring’s love for basketball that has kept her focused in life while traveling around the world.
“She’s always had to travel to get to competition and to get to experiences that are going to help her,” Smith said. “I just give her a lot of credit for being open-minded and having a vision of what she wants to do and having to go to the most extreme ends of the world to capture that.”
On the court, Haring possesses physical talents that can’t be taught. Her offensive arsenal includes the ability to create her own shot off the dribble, shoot over the top of a defender and knock down perimeter jump shots.
Haring is the Ducks’ third-leading scorer at eight points per game and second-leading rebounder, grabbing nearly four boards per contest. She has reached double figures in scoring in five consecutive games and is second to UCLA’s Noelle Quinn in scoring for Pacific-10 Conference freshmen.
Haring is still raw defensively but has improved on her technique as the season has progressed.
“Eleanor is a tremendously versatile athlete; we can play her at (four different positions),” Smith said. “Offensively, she’s a gold mine. Defensively, she still has some work to do in terms of being solid in her stance and using her athleticism and quickness to get to rebounds.”
Haring also benefited greatly from her time spent in the Women’s National Basketball League. Playing against older, more experienced athletes has made her a smarter player and taught her how to cut down on mental mistakes.
Off the court, Haring said she’s a fan of “vegetating,” watching “
Finding Nemo” or listening to Coldplay with her roommate, guard Kaela Chapdelaine.
“Eleanor is a great, funny, outgoing person,” Chapdelaine said. “She’s kind of shy at first but when she gets out of her shell she’s so much fun to be around.”
Despite being an independent person, Haring still misses not being able to share important moments with her family.
“I miss family and friends but it’s more like I miss them because I wish they were here experiencing it with me,” Haring said. “It’s not like I want to go home … I don’t really get homesick.”
While Haring has shown maturity, she has also shown a humorous side.
“We kind of goof around when we’re together,” said forward Carolyn Ganes, a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. “If you look up at the balcony in section 309 and 310, we made Canadian and Australian flags to look at for the national anthem. We thought we were really sneaky.”
With three more years at Oregon in front of her, Haring has plenty of time to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Until she figures anything out, there will always be one constant.
“I still feel like a little kid kind of looking up going, ‘whoa,’” Haring said. “I just want to play basketball and I’ll play as much as I can. Whether that’s in the under-40 league at home … I’ll play wherever.”