Tribute to WRCA

After a decade and a half of being a top ranked, perennial powerhouse in BC High school Basketball, the tradition of WRCA basketball , for all intents and purpose, may have came to an end last night. They may be back, but it will take at least five years to rebuild the program and chances are that won't happen.

Great to see so many alumni from WRCA at last nights game, including current Div 1 player Riley Barker (Portland) and Tyrell Marra (ex Div 1 - Portland State) and a lot of current CIS players.

I think this year's team was a true David vs Goliath. Traditional Scott Allen coached teams were usually loaded with aspiring Grade 10's, 11's and 12's (even Grade 9's at times). Depth was never an issue. But, the day Scott Allen took over the Head Coaching duties at TWU was the day that the basketball program began a slow spiral downward at WRCA. Members of this year's team were in Grade 8 at the time of Coach Allen's departure. The core group of boys on this years team played together since Grade 5 and were all at WRCA (except for Varton who arrived in Grade 9).

Since that time, for various reasons, they did not add any new basketball playing kids to the school, and lost a number who would have contributed nicely this year. They lost a 7 footer, a 6'8" player, and a 6'3" star guard who took his talents to Lynden Christian.

This year, a lack of depth hurt this talented squad. This was the exact same team that won the BC Jurnior Championship 2 years ago (except for the loss last year of 7 footer ). Four players (Sam, Vartan, Peter and Tyus) played every minute of every game at this years tournament. To be competitive, they could not sub out as the depth on the bench was not strong to compete at the AAA level. So, they could not press, do half court traps, but still maintained a very aggressive and effective man to man defence that shut down the best teams in the province.

With 1 minute to go in last nights B.C. Championship game , and a good roll here or there, and they would have met their goal. Given they had 3 close games (2 OT wins and 2 pt thriller over Kits), their resilience to get to the finals, and make a comeback when they were down by 9 with 5 minutes to go was outstanding. A fantastic group of kids who did the final curtain call of WRCA basketball at the top level of BC high school basketball a great service.

Well done WRCA class of 2013. You put up a great fight in an epic game to the top team (Grove) in the province.

I have nothing but true admiration and respect for this years group of WRCA players, watching them play all year with such passion and dedication, battling always, ever resilient and poised, knowing what task was at hand. They played hard last night and fought hard. The loss is painful, but they should walk off with their heads high as they were a great team with great players. All their key players should be playing at the next level and I look forward to watching them. People said they had no bench, but their bench were true teammates, always, always supporting the starters even when they played little. You feel for these kids, because just being part of something special meant the world to them. I want to give a special shout out to Vartan, you are true student of the game, an overachiever who became a great player with endless effort, determination and dedication. You were an unbelievable leader on the court and your a blueprint for any future players for how you go about doing it the right way for greatness. It will seem very strange not seeing the blue and white of WRCA next year, but your history will re-build this program to what it has been.