finland

 Anni Lehtola has mad game.

She is 17 years old and has been playing club basketball in her home town of Tampere, Finland for a decade. But she loves to travel and wanted to spend a school year in America, specifically New York.

She was placed at Alexander, which was a great surprise for coach Marcia Hirsch. Out of the blue, a solid returning group got a superstar. Lehtola has average just under 17 points with six rebounds and two assists per game as the Trojans are currently 9-3.

Many teams that return four quality seniors and a few juniors that can put in serious minutes and contribute would be mad that somebody comes in and takes a starting position away.

But that is definitely not the case with the Trojans. The girls all play well with Lehtola, who fit in right away, and Hirsch has developed a good relationship with her. The two spend most of their time together busting each other's chops. There is tremendous team chemistry with the entire Alexander squad.

In Finland, you don't play for a high school team, so Lehtola and other people that want to play basketball must try out for club teams, which is very competitive. She was one of the top players on her team.

There are high school teams, kind of.

Each high school will develop a team that gets together three times per week (in addition to her five days a week of club) that practices three times per week. And club goes on all year round. 

Lehtola was placed with Keith and Wendy Jensen and has enjoyed being with her adopted family. 

The girl that loves to travel had a chance to visit New York City, which has been a highlight of her visit to America.

There is one drawback for Lehtola, but she doesn't mind. Because she went to the U.S.A for a year, she loses a year of high school in Finland. So she'll go back to her home country and have two more years of high school. 

She will continue to play with her club squad and practice with her high school team. Then she will either go to college, and she's thinking about coming back to America for school. She might also stay in Finland, where she wants to earn a law degree.

There is also the potential of her playing professional basketball in Finland, Spain or Italy.

But that is not what she is thinking about right now. She wants to lead the currently top-seeded Trojans to a sectional championship and bring that patch back home.