The Smithers Secondary junior girls basketball team is holding their own against some more seasoned competition.
The team has begun playing in senior girls tournaments. Despite being the youngest squad, Smithers is 3-1 against these older schools. They’ve beaten the Houston Secondary (59-19), and Hazelton Secondary twice (72-12, 60-15), falling only to Charles Hays Secondary School (70-50).
Head Coach Chris Van der Mark says their work ethic is more impressive than their number of wins.
“At the end of the day, what’s really nice is they’re winning the games they’re supposed to win and they’re battling hard against teams that they should be having to battle hard against,” he says.
It’s easy to be intimidated by players sometimes four years older than you, which is another aspect that impresses Coach.
“To be fair, they should be a little bit over-odd. They’re in grade nine. It would be a pretty normal response but I think the fact that they can recover from that an then just battle is really important.”
The girls are undefeated in zone play, sporting a 14-0 record. Including tournament and exhibition play, the girls are 17-3.