Bays court return to basketball glory
Provincial championships tip off today at Langley Events Centre
Even if the Oak Bay High edifice still has that new-building smell, the place reeks of history.
The boys’ basketball team practises and plays on gym floors named after iconic Oak Bay coaches Gary Taylor and Don Horwood. It is that legacy the provincially top-ranked Bays carry with them as they look for a return to green glory when they open the B.C. Quad-A championships at the Langley Events Centre tonight at 8:15 against the Mount Baker Wild of Cranbrook.
The Island second-seed Belmont Bulldogs open play at 10:15 a.m. against W.J. Mouat of Abbotsford.
Taylor built the 1960s basketball dynasty at Oak Bay and coached the Bays to two B.C. high school titles. His Bays played in four B.C. championship games during that decade, losing twice to the Vic High Totems in memorable all-Island finals, before he went on to coach the University of Victoria Vikes.
Horwood continued the legacy started by Taylor. The transplanted Newfoundlander coached the Bays to three B.C. titles and five B.C. championship game appearances in the 1970s before going on to win three national titles in a 26-year coaching career with the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
Current Oak Bay coach Chris Franklin is in his seventh season of guiding the Bays and is certainly aware, and appreciative, of that history. But he doesn’t let it weigh him down.
“It was a long time ago and Oak Bay has had a lot of success in sports — volleyball, rugby, track and soccer — since then,” he said.
But there have been no B.C. titles in boys’ hoops for Oak Bay since 1977. The ’77 Bays defeated Princess Margaret of Surrey in the provincial final.
The Oak Bay era ended after losing the 1978 all-Island B.C. final to Nanaimo District Secondary, led by future University of Victoria star and two-time Olympian Gerald Kazanowski. In all, Oak Bay played in nine B.C. championship games in 13 years from 1965 to 1978, winning five provincial titles.
“We don’t feel any pressure,” Franklin said of the bid to bring Oak Bay its first championship in 41 years.
“We’ve been No. 1 for quite a while this season and the guys are used to it. We don’t think we have to be Superman. We just need to be ourselves, play our own game and be in the moment.”
Of the Bays’ strengths, Franklin said: “We share the ball well, we shoot well and we run well.”
Guards Caelan Scott and Diego Maffia provide the outside spark for the Bays. Six-foot-seven Riley Cronk and six-foot-five Cam Henderson generate the inside dominance.
They join a star-studded group of Islanders that have played in the B.C. tournament — including Olympians Kazanowski, Billy Robinson of Chemainus, Greg Wiltjer of Parkland and Eric Hinrichsen of Carhi, along with numerous UVic Vikes stars such as Robbie Parris, Craig Higgins and Kelly Dukeshire out of Oak Bay.
Then there was that deft-passing 1992 B.C. tournament MVP out of St. Michaels University School named Steve Nash, who went onto become Captain Canada and MVP again — twice in the NBA.
Meanwhile, the Triple-A power on the Island this season has all been from the North.
Carihi of Campbell River kicks things off at the Langley Events Centre in the provincial championships opening game against South Kamloops at 8:15 a.m. today. Mark Isfeld of Courtenay meets Pitt Meadows at 10:15 a.m., and G.P. Vanier of Courtenay playing North Delta in the featured game at 8:15 p.m.
Top-ranked Double-A Brentwood College defeated Oak Bay 89-85 in the final of the UVic Vikes Alumni Tournament this season and is considered by many to be the best team in the province, regardless of classification.
Blake Gage’s defending champion Brentwood squad gets the featured treatment in the opening-round game of the Double-A provincial championship tournament at the Langley complex at 8:15 tonight against Grand Forks. The neighbouring Shawnigan Lake School Stags, the Island’s second seed, open at 6:45 p.m. against Pacific Academy of Surrey.
The Single-A championship representatives from the Island are Glenlyon-Norfolk School, St. Andrew’s and Gold River. That B.C. championship also begins today at the Langley Events Centre.