Wherever they’ve travelled this season, the Mount Baker Secondary Junior Girls basketball team has been a force to be reckoned with.
This weekend, they’ll get a chance to show the local community what they’re capable of.
Hosting a 10-team tournament at the MBSS gymnasium on Friday and Saturday, the Wild girls will have their eye on a championship performance. Having recently placed second at a very competitive 16-team tourney in Kelowna, defeating several top AAA programs in the province, their home tournament will feature lower division teams from local communities.
High school teams from Sparwood, Fernie, Grand Forks, Golden, Castlegar and Creston will be in attendance, as well as Jaffray’s junior high school and both Cranbrook middle schools.
The Wild will kick off their weekend against Laurie Middle on Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. The winner of that game will move on to play Creston’s Prince Charles Secondary at 1:30 p.m while the loser will move into the consolation bracket.
In order to win the tournament, the MBSS girls will need to win four games. The championship game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Speaking to the Townsman earlier this year, Junior Girls head coach Dan Loewen said that his team should provide entertainment for anyone who wants to come out and watch them compete.
“This team has a whole pile of kids that are going to be future post-secondary players,” Loewen said. “We’re probably the tallest girls team in the East and West Kootenays, both senior and junior, and have the potential to be one of the better teams.
“[We’re] a fun, exciting team to watch [who] do some pretty cool, innovative things. It’s good basketball… we don’t walk the ball and play boring basketball. We want to attack and attack and attack more.”
The team has already built up a reputation this year for enormous offensive outputs. During a tournament in Okotoks, Alberta in mid-January, the team beat their three opponents by scores of 59-23, 84-11 and 90-24.
Following this weekend’s home tournament, the Junior Girls will continue working their way to the B.C. Provincial tournament which is set to held in Langley from February 28 to March 3.
