The University of the Fraser Valley men’s basketball program has capped its 2021 recruiting class by signing former provincial MVP Suraj Gahir.
The North Delta native returns north of the border to suit up for the Cascades after spending last season redshirting at California Baptist University, an NCAA Division I program.
Gahir led the North Delta Huskies to the B.C. 3A high school championship in 2019, highlighted by a memorable buzzer-beating three-pointer to lift the Huskies past the Duchess Park Condors 62-61 in the semifinals.
“For the direction of our program, in terms of talent level and winning the local area (in recruiting), Suraj is a huge signing for us,” stated Cascades head coach Joe Enevoldson, noting that assistant coach Jason Price was instrumental in the process of recruiting Gahir.
A four-time B.C. high school all-star, Gahir added a Fraser Valley tournament MVP honour to his resumé in 2018. He spent the 2019-20 season at Edge School, a prep school for athletes based in Calgary, before heading stateside to redshirt at Cal Baptist in 2020-21. He decided to transfer back to Canada in search of greater opportunity to make an on-court impact.
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Enevoldson describes Gahir as a versatile ‘Swiss Army knife’ who can play the point or the wing with equal efficiency due to his size and athleticism.
“As I started looking at Canadian schools and coming back home, I was in touch with Coach Joe and Coach Price and I just liked what they were about,” Gahir stated. “It was a good fit for me and my style of play, and if I was going to come back to Canada, it was going to be somewhere close to home so my family could watch me play.”
Gahir will have all five years of eligibility at his disposal when he makes his Cascades debut this fall.
The UFV basketball programs recently announced their 2021-22 conference schedules, and are set to open Canada West play Oct. 29 at home vs. UBC Okanagan.
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