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LEC coaching marathon continues Wednesday for Kennedy

McMath senior girls opens play against Brookswood at BC AAA Championships
basketball
Chris Kennedy and co-coach Anne Gillrie-Carre talk to their players during at timeout at the Crehan Cup final. Kennedy also serves as an assistant with the McMath junior boys team meaning eight straight days of coaching at the Langley Events Centre.

The rumours that Chris Kennedy brought a sleeping bag with him to the Langley Events Centre this week are not true. Although it would have come in handy.

The super coach, who has devoted years of his life to developing basketball talent in his hometown, is going from one McMath Wildcats team to another at the LEC. 

Kennedy serves as an assistant coach to Jon Acob for the upstart junior boys squad that will play for the provincial title tonight against Burnaby South. Hours later, he will put on his head coach hat to guide the Wildcats senior girls team into its opening game at the B.C. AAA Championships against the Brooskwood Bobcats. That game tips-off at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

His schedule for Monday included a 5 pm practice in Richmond with the senior girls team before racing off to Langley for the 8 p.m. semi-final tilt that saw the Wildcats pull out a thrilling overtime win against Vancouver College. Oh yes, then there is his actual professional career as Superintendent of Schools for West Vancouver — a position he has held for nearly a decade after starting off as a teacher at McRoberts Secondary back in the mid-1990s.

While the junior boys run to the provincial final has included a couple of upset wins, the tournament’s sixth seed still had a decent shot of pulling off the feat. It’s a different outlook for his senior girls squad that is loaded with underage players and will be an underdog right out of the gate as the No. 11 seed against the perennial powerhouse and No. 6 Bobcats.

 

It will also almost be a home game for the Langley school.

“We gave them a good run at the (Howard) Tsumura tournament so I feel good about that. All those top Valley teams are difficult. I like the match-up. We will do some different things on defence to try and stop their shooters,” said Kennedy.

“What a great opportunity it’s going to be for our young girls. (For Grade 8 standouts) Marina (Radocaj) and Caitlin (Kippan) to be out there and just those 10 girls coming back. The experience of these four games is going to be awesome for them. It can’t replicated anywhere else.”
The 16-team B.C. Senior Girls Championships will continue through Saturday at the LEC.