EDMONTON—The summer ahead could be magical for Canada’s senior women’s basketball team, a dream journey playing for high stakes in front of family and friends for one of the few times ever, a lifetime of special memories to cement them in national sports lore.

They await the Pan Am Games in Toronto and the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament in Edmonton full of confidence and resolve and feeling one thing above all.

“It’s our time now,” in the words of veteran forward Lizanne Murphy of Beaconsfield, Que.

The group that emerged from a three-day tryout camp here on Tuesday is time-tested and good; it is a team chock full of veterans and youngsters of immeasurable skill and the goal is quite simple.

“I think for sure the goal would be to medal at the Olympics,” said Brampton’s Tamara Tatham, entering her ninth summer with the national team program. “I really do think our team now and in the future can do great things.”

The reason for optimism is legitimate given the team’s rise through the international scene. Canada finished fifth in the 2014 world championships after a top-8 finish at the 2012 London Olympics.

While there are still 15 players remaining in camp, the top 12 to play in Toronto at the Pan Am Games could be one of the best Canadian teams in decades.

There are 11 of the 12 players from last year’s world championship team still in camp and the last spot will go to Natalie Achonwa, a first-round pick of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.

“In all my years with the national team, we’ve never had the depth of talent or level of talent that we have this year,” said head coach Lisa Thomaidis.

And the goal is quite simple:

“Everything from this point on is about that Olympic berth,” said Thomaidis.

The special nature of this group of women, the familiarity they have with each other and the passion they have for playing for Canada is what’s driving them for the biggest home summer ever.

Canada hasn’t hosted a multi-sport games that include women’s basketball since the 1976 Montreal Olympics and last hosted an Olympic qualifier before the 1996 Atlanta Games.

“Now we have that mix on the team where we have the older players who been through hell, who have experience that and now we have these basketball players who are phenomenal athletes that are very talented, way more talented than we were at that age,” said Hamilton’s Shona Thorburn,

“We kind of have that mix and I think they’re learning from us and we’re telling them how great this opportunity is, how important it is to be on this team, to be committed. It’s a lot more than just your skill.”

Canada will be a medal favourite at the Pan Ams and an odds-on choice to gain the one Rio Games berth up for grabs at the qualification tournament. It will be the continuation of an amazing ascension through the world ranks after a stretch of more than a decade when Canada couldn’t even dream of being in a Games or winning a medal anywhere.

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“I don’t think it’s crazy to think that we could medal at the Olympics,” said veteran guard Kim Gaucher. “When I first started with this team we couldn’t even qualify for an Olympics in my first eight years on the team, but there’s the USA and then there’s a cluster of teams that are fighting for it.

“We feel like we’re right at the doorstep, we’re knocking.”