Lake City Falcons senior boys basketball coach Harrison Stupich couldn’t ask for a better group of players.
Stupich, who took over the reins of the senior boys basketball program at the beginning of the season, hopes to bring a breath of fresh air to the program and bring it back to its once provincial-calibre level of competition.
“They’re learning,” he said of the group, who just came off a convincing 80-62 triumph over their northern rivals, the Correlieu Coyotes of Quesnel.
“The thing is these kids just love playing basketball, and that’s what I’m super excited about is getting the ball rolling and getting a good basketball environment back at this school.”
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Stupich, currently a teacher on call in School District 27, played a successful career of university ball on Vancouver Island, and he hopes with his background, and his players’ eagerness to learn and improve, good things will happen.
“It’s been awesome to see the development of them as players,” he said.
The team finished third late last month at a tournament in Quesnel, and is now gearing up for a potential berth at the provincial championships.
“Provincials is our goal, and the kids want to execute on that,” Stupich said.
The team will first need to compete at the zone championships coming up Feb. 21-23 in Prince George where they’ll take on Duchess Park, Prince George Secondary School, College Heights and Correlieu for the spot at provincials from the zone.
“Those are established programs we’ll be up against,” he said. “We’ll have to play well. They’ll be well coached and well executed.”
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Last Wednesday, the Falcons got a chance to display their skill in front of the entire school as an afternoon game saw the stands packed with students in the Lake City Secondary gymnasium in the Falcons win over the Coyotes.
Nathan Perez dropped 23 for the Falcons, Tanvir Vaid scored 15, Mokam Mahill knocked in 13 and Jasraj Saini had 13 to lead all Falcons scorers.
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