By Bill Sheehan
Gabi Vidmar emerged as a full-time starter this season on the Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team, and it didn't take her long to seize the opportunity.
In December, the junior from Adelaide, Australia, was named Big West Player of the Week after scoring 17 points and grabbing eight rebounds in a win over Pepperdine. Vidmar is among the team leaders in points (10.4 per game), three-pointers (30), three-point field-goal percentage (40.5%), rebounds (5.9) and assists (2.2).
"I'm just trying to focus on my defense – I know the rest will come. I don't look at the stats too much because I get in my own head about it. For me, it's all about winning," said the 5-foot-10 Vidmar, who plays shooting guard and small forward.
Still, she takes pride in leading the team in minutes played and steals. Vidmar is on the court nearly 39 minutes per game, barely getting a minute's rest. "I like playing and will take all the minutes I can get," she said.
Vidmar averages a Big West-best 3.2 steals per game and recorded five of them while hitting five of seven three-point attempts in the Titans' 66-53 loss at Hawai'i on Saturday. She led the nation in steals earlier this season.
Her knack for making steals, to some extent, may be traced to her days playing netball, a popular women's sport in Australia and other Commonwealth nations. It's a passing-only game in which teams score by tossing a ball through a net hanging from a rim atop a pole. Some call the sport a cross between basketball and ultimate Frisbee.
Playing center for the Contax Netball Club, Gabi Vidmar prepares to pass to a teammate. Netball players' uniforms list their positions.
"I learned how to read the ball for intercepts and disrupt opponents in the passing lanes by playing netball," said Vidmar, who said the sport sharpens hand-eye coordination and depth perception.
Jeff Harada, Fullerton's sixth-year head coach, praised Vidmar for stepping up her game this season. "Gabi has always been a good shooter and a capable defender. But she has really improved at both ends of the court and has established herself as a premier defender," he said. "During Big West games, she really has elevated the use of her quickness and timing to jump the lanes and get deflections, tips and steals.
"She worked hard in the off-season on her fitness, which is important because she is someone we need on the floor."
The Titans, 6-8 overall and 1-3 in conference, face UC Irvine on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and UC Davis on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both games are at Titan Gym.
Season-ending injuries have hampered the Titans, whose three conference losses have all came on the road. Graduate transfer Shyla Latone, who had been penciled in as starting point guard, went down in October with a torn ACL. Starting power forward Kathryn Neff, a returning starter, tore an ACL in the conference opener at Santa Barbara.
Another point guard, incoming freshman Kaliana Salazar-Harrell from Kona, Hawaii, is being redshirted while she rehabilitates from an ACL tear suffered in high school.
Refusing to use the injuries as an excuse, Harada said the Titans must rely on other team members to fill the void. For example, shooting guards Fujika Nimmo and Una Jovanovic have had to assume playmaking duties in Latone's absence.
"Neff was a huge loss. She is a team captain, has experience, knows our system and is a good shooter, said Harada, adding that sophomore Ruby MacDonald and senior Nancy Panagiotopoulou-Andritsopoulou have had to basically learn on the job. "We need contributions from everyone and must find different ways for our personnel to score," he said.
"Gabi has a green light to shoot when she is open. With defenses focusing on her, we try to run sets to get her the ball. And she's working more on scoring off the dribble."
The 21-year-old Vidmar, whose first name is Gabrielle, said the Titans need to start off their games stronger. "We've fallen behind in the first quarter and must show more intensity and energy from the jump."
"On offense, we should be moving the ball around more effectively, finding the right shots and the open player. Defensively, if someone is hot on the other team, we need to adjust to that straight away."
Vidmar played high school and club basketball in Adelaide, and she represented South Australia state in several national competitions. She created a personal highlights video and distributed it to selected U.S. colleges. Then-Titans basketball assistant coach Jodi Page made initial contact with Vidmar before Harada offered a scholarship.
Representing the Forestville Eagles, Gabi Vidmar competes in a South Australian Premier League game.
"I knew a couple fellow Australians who were playing in Montana. But this is a better climate for me," she said. "And my parents liked it too."
She committed to Fullerton in October 2019, during her senior year at Immanuel College, a private Lutheran school in Adelaide. Bella Stratford, an Immanuel teammate, also signed with Fullerton.
COVID-19 restrictions forced the two to begin their freshman year taking online classes from their Adelaide homes. Australia had banned incoming international travelers and made it challenging for Aussies to leave the nation. "They kept telling me, 'If you are out, you are out,' " said Vidmar. "My Fullerton Zoom classes were at two or three in the morning local time. It was a bit of an adjustment but became easier as it went along."
After much effort, the two received travel exemptions from their government. Next, they submitted negative COVID tests to obtain travel visas from the U.S. Embassy in Sydney. They arrived in Southern California in early November 2020.
After practicing with the team for three weeks, Vidmar found herself in the starting lineup in the Titans' opener at UCLA. "I didn't expect it," said Vidmar, who replaced an injured Joy Krupa.
Vidmar started nearly half of Fullerton's games as a freshman, averaging 7.7 points, 2 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 87% from the free-throw line. She was named to the All-Big West Freshman team.
She called it a choppy season for the Titans, who finished 4-18 and 2-14 in the Big West. "COVID was still front and center. Some games were cancelled, and masks were required on the bench. I didn't know what to expect anyway, living in a different country. So it wasn't the best year," said Vidmar.
Stratford opted not to return to Fullerton for a second year. "I was thinking, 'Shall I come back or just stay home?' " said Vidmar. "I didn't think COVID could get any worse than it was. I'm so glad that I came back."
The Titans improved to 11-18 overall and 5-12 in conference that season. Vidmar started in 11 of 29 games as a sophomore, averaging 7.7 points, 2 rebounds and 1.4 steals. She notched team-highs in three-pointers (37) and three-point field-goal percentage (32.2).
Jovanovic, a sophomore from Santa Clara, is impressed by Vidmar's defense. "She is really good at reading people's eyes and anticipating their next pass. Her steals are getting us extra possessions."
"Gabi is playing a bigger role now. She's a great spot-up shooter who we can count on to her shots and gives us a lot of minutes. Gabi is very competitive yet very calm and composed," said Jovanovic, who is a kinesiology major who envisions a career in coaching or athletic injury prevention.
One needn't look far to see where Vidmar got her competitive nature.
Her father, Aurelio, was a 12-year member of the Australian national soccer team and scored against Diego Maradona's Argentinian soccer team in a World Cup qualifier in 1993. Aurelio also played for professional teams in Europe and Japan, and he has had a long coaching career. He is the manager of Thai League 1's Bangkok United.
Her mother, Sarah, and her maternal grandmother, Margaret Angove, both played semiprofessional netball in Australia.
Vidmar had little interest in playing soccer and took up both netball and basketball around age 7. Sarah was playing in a pickup basketball game when a friend mentioned that her daughter's under-10 basketball team needed a player. "My mum told her Gabi could fill in, and I've never looked back really."
Nine-year-old Gabi Vidmar attempts a free throw as a member of the Forestville Eagles Basketball Club in her hometown of Adelaide, Australia.
She began competing for the Forestville Eagles Basketball Club and the Contax Netball Club. She played shooting guard for Forestville and center, a non-scoring position, in netball.
Vidmar gave up playing netball for Contax at age 16 but continued to play both sports at Immanuel College. "I thought there might be more opportunities playing basketball, especially in regard to playing college ball in the States, so I focused more on it."
In the Australian School Championships, where the two top teams from each Australian state compete at season's end, Immanuel finished second in 2018 and third in 2019. Vidmar averaged 21 points in the 2018 finals as a junior and was named MVP of the Independent Girls School Sports Association's local 10-team league in her senior year.
Sarah, who serves as an executive and specialized coach at the sports association's Adelaide, office, said Gabi was never pressured to play a specific sport. "She's been quite happy with her decision. It's interesting that neither of her parents played basketball, at least not very well," she joked.
"Gabi started to realize that she had an opportunity to be recruited overseas. Sending a child away for the first time during a pandemic was tough," said Sarah. "She was lucky to have opportunities to play as a freshman, and that taste was enough to get her to return for her second year. That was important to her — finding somewhere where she could play immediately."
Vidmar has a younger sister, Jordi, who plays semiprofessional netball and works for an airline at Adelaide Airport. Her parents and sister keep up with her feats by streaming Fullerton's games. Sarah and Jordi are vacationing in California and will attend both Titans games this week.
Gabi Vidmar, left, and her sister Jordi were basketball teammates at Immanuel College.
"Southern California's weather is very similar to South Australia, so that's not much of a change," said Vidmar, who occasionally spends time at Laguna Beach. "I might be bit biased, but I like my home beaches a little better."
Unfazed by South Australia's history of shark attacks that requires aerial surveillance, Vidmar enjoys surfing, swimming and sunbathing along Adelaide's pristine coastline.
Her parents own a beach house in Middleton, about 40 miles south of Adelaide. "It's an hour away, and we usually go there during the summer, especially at Christmastime, with our whole family -- cousins, aunties and uncles.
Gabi Vidmar, second from right, is joined by her father Aurelio, sister Jordi and mother Sarah in a family portrait.
Vidmar, who has earned Big West All-Academic honors, is a child and adolescent development major with a concentration in elementary school setting. She would like to become an elementary school teacher in Adelaide but also plans to explore playing professional basketball.
"It would be cool to play in Europe," said Vidmar, who has an Italian passport through her paternal grandmother's lineage. "But then again, I've been away from home for a while. It would be nice to return and play basketball there. But we'll see – you never know."
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