The McMath Wildcats return to the Fraser Valley this week, looking for more seasoning against the top senior girls basketball teams in the province.
Despite a core of Grade 11 players, the Wildcats hold down the No. 7 ranking among AAA schools and they should only get better as they march towards next month’s playoffs. After participating at tournaments in Port Coquitlam and Abbotsford, McMath heads to Coquitlam for the prestigious Centennial Top 10 Shootout, starting Thursday, where it will receive a steady diet of ranked teams.
A year ago, most of these girls came within a game of winning the provincial junior girls championship. Now, they look to become just the second Richmond school in recent memory to qualify for the B.C. AAA tourney.
“I wasn’t sure where we would be as mostly a Grade 11 team, but from what I have seen from other teams so far, we are right in the mix,” said co-coach Paul Jones.
“League games are big for the development of the whole team. But it’s tournaments like this where our top seven to eight have to really step up their games and it helps them become better players.”
Jones has teamed up with longtime coach Anne Gillrie-Carre to handle the bench duties this season. He needs no introduction to the players, having worked with many of them way back during their days in the Richmond Youth Basketball League. Among the familiar faces is his daughter Jessica Jones — a standout Grade 11 guard who was named to Basketball B.C.’s U17 provincial team last week. She is part of a group of outstanding athletes that thrive in a number of sports.
“It’s a big jump for these girls to play at the senior level but this is a team of very good athletes with some outstanding basketball players,” said Jones. “They are at the point where they had to decide (what will be their No. 1 sport) but whether it’s soccer, field hockey, softball or basketball, you will see a lot of them play at the next level.”
Jessica Zawada and Bobby-Jo Colburn were also in contention for the provincial team roster, while guard Justine McCaskill has previously participated in Basketball B.C. elite programs. Some promising younger players include Zawada’s Grade 9 sister Abby who played on the provincial U14 team this past summer.
What the Wildcats may lack in height at the post positions, they more than make up for it in athleticism.
“We have some versatile girls who can do a lot of things,” Jones added. “We are going to run, press, drive, kick (out) and shoot to keep being successful.”
Last month, at the 16-team WJ Mouat Tournament, the Wildcats managed a sixth place finish after falling 54-45 to eventual champion and No. 4 Riverside in the quarter-finals. They also rolled off four straight wins at a jamboree, hosted by Riverside secondary, highlighted by a 52-50 win over No. 3 Mouat thanks to a three-point buzzer beater by Jessica Jones. That event also included a 57-42 victory against No. 8 Charles Best.
