Terrace’s own Marek Ormerod proved he was a good pick for Team BC’s U16 basketball roster as they took home the gold in the 2014 Western Canadian Championships after taking down Manitoba 58 to 41.
“I was out on the floor when the last buzzer went and then everyone came streaming in,” 16-year-old Ormerod said. “I saw friends and everyone jumping up and down shouting ‘we’re number one!’”
Hugh Ormerod, Marek’s father, said the team was constructed based solely on the skills of players that would lead them to the nationals.
“Marek’s role was definitely a defensive role,” he said, “that’s one of his strengths.”
Standing at 5’11, Marek is the short one on the team playing against guys towering over him at 6’4.
“I was really undersized for what I was playing, so I had to use more subtle advantages,” Marek said, “so a little elbows here and there.”
The championships were held in Edmonton, Alta. at the end of July and the round robin had Team BC’s U16 Boys competing against Nova Scotia, Yukon, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.
The first game played was against Nova Scotia and the score was close until Team BC took them by six points, they went on to play Manitoba in the second round and they were down by 18 but they came back to beat them by 2 points.
Alberta was left in the dust when Team BC beat them by 35 points, then they dominated the Yukon with a final score of 73-48. They took on Saskatchewan next and won with a 45 point advantage taking them to the championship against Manitoba. Training is the key, Marek explained, “not a lot of people my age train. And not a lot of people have a trainer like Terry Monture.”
Monture is a close family friend of the Ormerods and he has been working with Marek for the past five years. “Terry is probably the best trainer in B.C., or at least I’d have to say,” Marek said.
The two hit the gym everyday and they go to Parkside to work on basketball skills.
“Nobody that I’ve played against my size are as strong,” Marek said, “no one can move me around, but I can push guys that are like 6’4 out of key because I have an explosiveness that was taught to me.”
He values preparedness as well as hard work, he explained, “working hard puts you in positions that better develop yourself against better and bigger players,” he said.
Marek is not only talented on the court, he’s also talented in the classroom. He is two years ahead of his peers and he is set to graduate from Caledonia High School in the spring. He hopes to get a scholarship for basketball so he can study pre-med.
“I just want to get a scholarship so I can go to school,” he said, “really, my focus is academic — I’m an academic kind of person.”
He was jazzed that his team took home the gold last month, but he said as soon as it was over he put the experience behind him so he can concentrate on the future and keep moving forward.
He returns to school at Caledonia in the fall and will play for the basketball team and keep training so he can get onto the U17 team next year.
“At the moment, I was ecstatic with the way that we played and the way we finished the tournament,” he said, “It was a great way to end the summer.”
