A hero in the country of Trinidad, Gillian Goring is become well-known in the U.S, too.

When you're 6-7, it's hard to escape notice, even if you're a female basketball player. But Gillian Goring has the game to back up the attention she's received since she moved to the United States from her native Trinidad as an exchange student three years ago.

In Trinidad, Goring wasn't allowed to play basketball with girls her age and grew up competing against older boys until age 13, when she began playing with Trinidad's under-19 women's basketball team. She also played for a men's club team.

At age 14, Goring was named Trinidad's sports woman of the year. She also served as a junior ambassador for her country, joining Trinidad's president on trips to Great Britain, Scotland, and the U.S. "I had to stand before these audiences that included presidents and prime ministers and talk about my country," she told USA Today earlier this year. "I was scared to death."

Goring's height runs in her family -- her mother is 6-3 and her dad is 7-0 -- so it's possible that she's still growing. But she's not worrying about her height, as she's more focused on improving the nuances of her game. Since coming to the U.S. she's worked hard to develop her rebounding, passing, and ball-handling skills to complement her obvious shot-blocking abilities.

In her second (junior) season at Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pa., Goring averaged 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.6 blocks per game while leading the team to a 25-2 record. She racked up a host of honors, including being named to Parade and USA Today's All-America Second Teams and Street & Smith's First Team. Goring also play AAU ball for the Philadelphia Belles, and has attended the Nike All-American Camp the past two years.  

This summer, Goring decided to change high schools, transferring to West High School in Waterloo, Iowa. (Nina Smith, the nation's top recruit in 1999, also went there.) Goring indicated the decision was for academic reasons: she would require two years to graduate at Germantown Academy and expects to graduate in one year at Waterloo. However, she won't be eligible to play for West until mid-January, meaning she could miss more than half of the regular-season games.

"We are confident that Gillian is making a good choice for her future," Germantown Academy athletic director Jim Fenerty said in a statement published by the Philadelphia Inquirer, "and that she is moving on to an excellent school and a first-rate basketball program. If we felt otherwise, we would advise Gillian to reconsider."

Goring hasn't decided on a college yet, but she's weighing offers from a few of the many colleges that are pursuing her, including Connecticut, Tennessee, Rutgers, Iowa, Notre Dame and Penn State. Connecticut is reportedly her first choice.

Article written by Gball Associate Editor Jim Catalano.

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