Sports Section Editor: Jordan Cripps dcsportseditor@yahoo.ca Provincial Championships a Success Jordan Cripps Sports Editor March 12, 2003 the other press Highlights from BCCAA Provincial Championships Congratulations must be given to the UCFV Cascades and the Capilano Blues, the respective winners of the women’s and men’s draws at the BCCAA Provincial Championships, held at Douglas College's New Westminster campus this last weekend. The weekend was an extraordinary showcase-of the basketball talent that is being groomed throughout the province. With the ability on display throughout the tournament, there is little doubt that many of these players will be heard from again in the bas- ketball world, whether that is in the CCAA, CIAU, NAIA, NCAA, or on the international scene. The talent level was just that good. I’m sure that the selection process of the tournament MVPs and All-Star teams was not an easy decision for the committee responsible for making the choices. Diminutive guard, Jordan Yu, was definitely a popular choice according to the boisterous crowd after the Blues championship victory. UCFV’s Lauren Alonzo was also well received as the MVP on the women’s side. It’s no coincidence that these players are from the tournament cham- pions; both played huge roles in getting their teams into the National Championships two weeks from now. The University College of the Fraser Valley’s Women’s basketball team deserves all of the accolades it gets. They've won three consecutive Provincial Championships and their seventh in ten years. Talk about a dynasty. Unfortunately for the school, the Men’s team wasn’t able to secure a spot at the National Championships to defend their title. There's definitely going to be a party in North Vancouver. The Capilano Blues, under the vocal leadership of coach Paul Eberhardt, secured the first Basketball Provincial Championship in the history of the school. The Capilano fans came out in droves to support their team and the Gold Medal game might as well have been in North Vancouver for all of the support they were getting. The fifth seed Blues were certainly the surprise of the entire tournament, upsetting both the top and second seeds of the Men’s draw. Our Royals, unfortunately, faced an early exit from the tournament at the hands of the UNBC Timberwolves. I’m not sure whether they were pleased on Friday when they saw the Wolves struggle against the OUC Sun Demons. Why didn’t that happen Thursday? Perhaps OUC was just a better match-up against UNBC than this year’s Royals. The good news for the Royals is that they've gained some valuable experience after miss- ing the tournament last year and can come back stronger next year. The Royals did receive some positive news over the weekend, however. Their star guard, Taylor Cherris-Wilding, was named to the BCCAA Ist All-Star Team and was also named a CCAA All-Canadian. The BCCAA Provincial Championships as a whole were, in my opin- ion, very well-planned and executed. There wasn't much that went awry for the CSRW and, on the whole, the people who gave up virtually their entire weekend should be commended for their efforts. There is very lit- tle that could be criticized about the way the tournament was run. A num- ber of little things helped make the experience so successful. For example, the halftime entertainment, ranging from the “Douglas College Cheer Team” to young Burnaby athletes, was a nice touch. As well, the innova- tion of having the Gold Medal games video broadcast on the Internet was reportedly a great success. Kudos should go to game commentator Jason Kurylo and the rest of the people working the scorer’s table for spending, it seemed, three solid days sitting behind the same desk. At times you wondered whether they bothered to go home. Perhaps the only disap- BCCAA Provincial Championship pointment of the entire tournament was that the Gold Medal games were pretty lopsided. At least the result of the Men’s game was unexpected, Provincial Championships though. Photos by Devon Lewis One of the things that made the tournament so fun and exciting was Women’s Draw that the fans seemed to care about the results and were there supporting their teams. This often took the form of heckling the officials (“Bullshit” 3 UCC 54 (OT)_|2 Capilano 59 was a common chant throughout the gym) and trying to distract the 6 UNBC 50 6 UCC __ 42 Gold Medal UCFV opposition and give their team an advantage. “Airball” and “Na-Na-Na- 1 UCFV 55 Provincial Na-hey, hey, hey, goodbye” could be heard at almost every game. It was 4 Langara57 | J1 UCFV 53 2 Capilano 37 Champions especially nice to see the Douglas College’s other teams coming out to 5 OUC ___52 4 Langara 43 support the men’s team, even wearing face paint and costumes. With the success of the tournament, Douglas’s hosting of the CCAA Bronze Medal National Soccer Championships next year promises to be a great success. 3 Langara 56 4UCC 55 © page 20