Documentary profiles Fleetwood Park Secondary grad who made basketball history

Fleetwood Park Secondary graduate Harleen Dulay is the subject of Press Breaker, a new documentary chronicling her journey from a breakout athlete in elementary and secondary gyms, to becoming the first South Asian Canadian woman to play NCAA Division 1 basketball and the first Punjabi woman in the league.

Detailed in the film, Dulay’s passion for the game came from her father, Jay, a former high school basketball star himself who played for North Surrey Secondary in the 1980s.

“Some of the earliest memories I have with him are us outside on our driveway shooting buckets in the evening,” said Dulay. “It was more so just us having some father-daughter time.”

But her first taste of competitive, organized basketball came in Grade 4, when Khalsa School teacher Michelle Kelly recruited her to the school’s basketball team. Already tall for her age, Dulay was a dominant force on the court, which translated from grade to grade as she transferred to Princess Margaret Secondary.

There, a Grade 8 Dulay had the opportunity to play with PM’s senior team to gain a more challenging on-court experience, until a formal complaint was filed with B.C. School Sports against her for playing 12 minutes over what was allowed, putting her on the bench before the qualifying tournament for provincials.

“At 13 years old, it was hard for me to understand why somebody would do that,” said Dulay. “I didn’t help my senior team at all, they hadn’t even won a single game that season, it was solely just for the purpose of getting some experience, I wasn’t helping them make the playoffs or anything like that.

“I definitely took it personally, but instead of being upset the whole time, I just decided, ‘Let’s fight this.’”

With the support of her team, her school and her community, Dulay and Princess Margaret Secondary fought the ruling, which was subsequently overturned, allowing her back on the court and igniting a fire inside her.

“Once I was reinstated and allowed to play, it was game over at that point,” she said. “As soon as I stepped on that court, it was like, I mean business. I think it [the complaint] backfired because we had a really good season.”

Vindicated, the Grade 8 girls team won the Surrey Championship that season, placed second in the Fraser Valleys and finished third at provincials. Dulay played for PM for one more season before moving to Fleetwood Park in Grade 10, playing on their senior team.

By 16, she began receiving scholarship offers to play basketball in university – but her post-secondary basketball career nearly ended before it started. During a November practice early in the Grade 11 season, Dulay tripped over a defender’s feet during a drill and tore her posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), a rare injury in basketball and one she described as simply a freak accident.

“It definitely hit me like a ton of bricks,” she recalled. “I was going through my emotions of the injury itself, and then it was, ‘Do I even have a future at this point?’ I didn’t know if any Division 1 schools would want me anymore or if I would get a full-ride scholarship. All of that was going through my mind.”

Fortunately, her injury didn’t require surgery and she was able to rehabilitate through physiotherapy. Within a few months, she was back on the court, rounding out her secondary basketball career with a strong Grade 12 season and a commitment to the University of Nebraska.

“I had no idea I’d be making history,” said Dulay with a laugh. “It didn’t even occur to me until somebody was writing an article and they wanted to focus on the culture side of it. They did some research and brought it up to me. It was quite the thing to learn while I was already there.

“I then felt pride and a sense of honour and responsibility to represent the South Asian community, especially South Asian women.”

Dulay played for three of her four years at Nebraska, with her second year being a highlight as the Cornhuskers made it to the Sweet 16 tournament and won the Big 12 championship. In her third year, Dulay’s knee began to bother her again, and while she played through the pain, her ligament required surgery, cutting short her time on the court there.

However, after graduating from Nebraska in 2012, a healed Dulay found another opportunity to get off the sidelines, enrolling at UBC and playing basketball for two more seasons. While she wasn’t playing NCAA Division 1 anymore, the chance to play locally in front of her friends and family was worth at least as much as a Big 12 ring.

“It meant the world to have my family and friends attend my games every other weekend,” she said. “I didn’t need to have 15,000 people in the crowd, I think I just needed those select few people, and that made all the difference.

“I needed that little push from my community, and I think that’s what allowed me to have such a good two years at UBC.”

Dulay is still very much connected to the game: She launched the XV Training Academy with her husband, Manny Dulay, and helps coach senior boys basketball at Tamanawis Secondary. She was also recently named the new assistant coach with the UBC Women’s Basketball Team, offering her insight and inspiration to girls and women who share the same passion for basketball.

“I always knew I wanted to give back and inspire the next generation of basketball players, especially girls in the South Asian community, and it was sort of a no-brainer when I met my husband that we’d start our own training academy,” she said. “We want to help them reach their goals.

“If there’s one thing that they get out of the documentary, it’s that they feel inspired and know, ‘One of us did it, and I can too.’ I just want to keep inspiring them and want them to know that they can do it.”