After signing with the Owensboro Thoroughbreds mid-season, Cayden Edmonson’s success led to him signing with US Laval in France.
Edmonson signed a one-year contract, with him not taking much of a break at all before returning to the hardwood, this time overseas thanks to his agent.
“He was always looking for deals and it was like maybe a week or two after I signed with the Thoroughbreds, he messaged me and said that I had two,” Edmonson said. “I had an offer out of France, an offer out of somewhere else and he was just like, if you do finish your TBL season, but then go to France, you know that’s gonna take literally until the end of July. I leave in 20 days, so I don’t get much of a break.”
Edmonson’s route to signing overseas was an unconventional one, as he wasn’t even playing basketball competitively until signing with the Thoroughbreds later on in the season.
“I was at the training camp whenever they had that and then kinda life happened and I just went and worked at a different job,” Edmonson said. “About halfway through the season, they were like ‘hey we’d love to get back into contact’ and we made an agreement and I ended up getting on the team I wanna say in late May, early June, I think.”
Edmonson proceeded to be a crucial factor in the Thoroughbreds success at the end of the season, being a much needed post presence according to Head Coach Mark Anderson.
“Cayden brought much needed post play when Chuck Ogbodo was injured and with Meshack Lufile gone to attend to family,” Anderson said. “He rebounds [well] on the offensive end.”
In his short time with the Thoroughbreds, Edmonson averaged 6.4 PPG and 6.8 RPG while helping Owensboro to a near first-round upset in the playoffs.
Despite having played overseas in Germany once before, the fact that he’s playing basketball professionally still shocks him to this day.
“I’m a small-town boy and I never really expected, you know, basketball to turn into this for me,” Edmonson said. “I understand I’m tall, you know, everything like that and I work really hard, but usually when you hear overseas, you think of big D1 people. I went to an NAIA school in kind of a small town also, so it’s just kind of crazy how I’ve changed.”
Edmonson knows that he’ll face plenty of challenges while overseas, but knows that one of the biggest will be the language barrier and not seeing loved ones.
“The biggest challenge, I already know because I went to Germany previously, is I’m a homebody,” Edmonson said. “I love my family and it’s gonna be hard not seeing them. Once I get over that, the basketball stuff takes care of itself. Like, I’ll be there with people that are from France that speak English, so they can help me out with the language transition.”
Besides just being able to play amongst some of the best basketball has to offer, Edmonson is excited for the environment France has to offer.
“Outside of just the competition it’s just the scenery, to be able to soak all that in and just enjoy it,” Edmonson said. “I fly into Paris and my train leaves from Paris. Like how many kids from just around this general area in western Kentucky go ‘oh yeah, I went to Paris, France’, you know?
Edmonson said that his ability to dominate the boards and his leadership skills will make him a great addition to US Laval.
“Just being able to work my hardest,” Edmonson said. “I do really good on the rebounding aspect of things, so I can definitely control the boards over there, become a very high team leader, as long as they all speak English, so you know, that would help out. And if it comes down to attitudes and stuff like that, I have a pretty good attitude myself, so I can kinda keep the team just calm and keep going.”
