Kelowna Secondary School’s dynamic basketball duo can add another line to their long list of high school sports accomplishments.
KSS Point guard Mitch Goodwin and centre Braxton Bunce have both been nominated for Basketball B.C.’s top male high school athlete of the year. The pair will be up for the award at the 2012 Basketball B.C. Hall of Fame and Awards Dinner coming up next weekend in Langley.
Goodwin is also up for male high school athlete of the year at the Kelowna Civic awards, held Thursday night, after the Capital News press deadline.
He says getting recognized is OK, but nothing like winning with your team.
“It’s nice to know that all the hard work is paying off,” said Goodwin. “But I’m not really one of those people who wants to boast about individual awards. I would rather have a team championship to talk about.”
Despite being ranked number one in the province for much of this past basketball season, KSS failed to win the coveted B.C. Basketball championship, finishing seventh this year after suffering a close loss in one of its tournament games.
It was the second straight solid season for KSS’ boys basketball team. Goodwin says they would have loved to win the provincials but the success the team had over the past couple of years was great.
“Obviously the result wasn’t what we wanted but last year and this year were the closest I’ve ever been to my teammates,” he said. “It was great. We were like a group of brothers.”
Goodwin and Bunce have had outstanding high school basketball careers. Both have represented British Columbia on the B.C. provincial teams – capturing silver at the U-15 and U-17 Canada Basketball National Championship. Showing his multi-sport abilities, Goodwin was also ranked by The Province newspaper as one of the top 15 volleyball players in B.C. this past season.
Bunce represented Canada on the Junior National team last summer and both are awaiting word on whether they will be invited to Team Canada’s U-18 camp.
The pair are also preparing to move onto post secondary basketball careers south of the border.
Despite offers to jump into NCAA basketball, Goodwin has decided to attend a U.S. prep school for one year before university.
“I think another year to get stronger and faster will help me transition into university and help me contribute more when I get there,” he said. “It will help me get ready to play against much more athletic players.”
Bunce will be attending Cornell University in September 2012.
