Four young basketball players from the Cowichan Valley joined the South Vancouver Island Basketball Association U17 Select Team for a summer season that wrapped up earlier this month at the National Club Basketball Championships in Langley.
Mackenzie Hall, Taya Poole, Jazmine Charles and Milena Jojic tried out for the U17 team, and made the cut, even though Hall and Poole are both 14, Jojic is 15 and Charles is 16.
Hall and Charles are Cowichan Secondary School students and Poole attends Queen of Angels, but all three play for the Cow High Thunderbirds. Jojic attends and plays for Shawnigan Lake School.
The SVIBA team attended several tournaments in Canada and the U.S., including several that attracted U.S. college scouts. The National Club Championships — held this year for the first time — were the biggest one they attended in Canada. The SVIBA team went 3-3 at that event.
The girls learned a lot from SVIBA coach Brett Westcott, who is also an assistant coach at UVic. Sandeep Heer, who coached Hall and Poole on the Cowichan Secondary junior girls team last year, also helped coach the summer team.
