Calvin Skelton made his newest player a promise.

The Bel Air girls basketball coach talked a transfer from Canada into trying out for the team this winter. He even threw in an incentive: He’d learn her home country’s national anthem.

So, Skelton, who’s coached the Bobcats for 22 years, now spends some of his downtime studying “O Canada.” He has the first few lines down, Ahriaunna Cummings said. He even stops mid-practice sometimes to break into song. Cummings gives her coach’s voice a generous 10 out of 10 rating, but admits he still has some work to do.

“It just makes me feel like my coach does care about me,” Cummings said. “I don’t think I ever would have given it a shot if it wasn’t for him.”

Cummings is one of two international transfers who joined Harford County girls basketball teams this year. Fallston’s Phaedra Michaelides, from Greece, is similarly learning how to fit in with a new team, school and country. But their paths here couldn’t have been more divergent. Michaelides played semi-professionally in her home country, sometimes against opponents twice her age.

Fallston coach Johnny Woods has high hopes for Michaelides. She’s the Cougars’ second-leading scorer through three games, averaging 12 points per contest. She admitted it might take a few weeks to fully settle in but seems to be outpacing even her own goals.

Her family moved to Harford County from Kavala, Greece, where Michaelides started basketball young. There, she described, teenagers don’t play for their high schools. Instead, they join their area’s club teams and work their way up the professional ladder. She played for a semi-pro women’s league last year that included players as old as 30, as well as for the under-16 national team.

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself,” Michaelides said. “I know that I’m not going to be, from the first moment, the way I want to be, because it takes time. Everything is different. And even though I would just like to go out there and do amazing, I know that I can’t just expect that.”

Michaelides said playing basketball in college won’t be a priority, rather she’ll choose a school with academics in mind first. “I want to get into the best academic school, and then if they have a team that I could play on, it’s definitely something I would do,” she said, adding she’s received interest from Division III colleges.

“She’s probably one of the better bigs that I think I’ve ever come across,” Woods said. “Socially, I think she’s having a good time. Academically, she’s just a workhorse. You would think maybe there’d be a bit of a struggle there, but she just refuses to not be the best.”

Cummings, meanwhile, is playing basketball for the first time. Her family moved to the United States from New Brunswick, Canada, to live with Cummings’ widowed grandmother. She played ice hockey back home, a sport not prevalent at the high school level in Maryland, leaving her longing for an avenue to settle in and meet friends.

Skelton noticed the 5-foot-11 Cummings when she walked past his second-floor classroom door. He stopped her, told her about an upcoming interest meeting and apparently sold it well.

“She settled in here pretty quickly. The girls love her,” Skelton said. “They like to let me know when they hang out together, which I think is really cool. When they all go out to dinner together, they’ll send me a picture at the table. They scooped her up, and they haven’t put her down yet. They’re crazy about her.”

Cummings’ mother played basketball collegiately in the U.S. and was ecstatic to hear her daughter was giving the sport a try. She talked to Cummings for three hours after the first day of tryouts, Cummings said, giving pointers and teaching moves to help Cummings learn how to process defensive assignments and where to be on offense. Cummings’ mother, always watching from the bleachers, has turned into a coach of sorts. Their car rides home are filled with even more lessons and suggestions.

Above all, Cummings is grateful for the opportunity and eager to learn. And she’s thankful for the friends basketball is providing and proud to be impressing mom.

Said Cummings: “She was really proud that I was willing to fail at something new, give it my all, and not worry about how I might look.”

Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons.