McMath Wildcats represent the the past and future of Richmond girls high school basketball.
As one of the top junior girls teams in the province, they are the city’s best bet to return to the B.C. AAA tournament as soon as 2016.
Their roster features three players whose parents were on dominant Lulu Island teams in the 1980s.
Jessica and Abby Zawada’s father Andrew was a key member of the 1988 B.C. champion Richmond Colts team that is considered by many as one of the greatest ever assembled. Jessica Jones’ mother Teresa DeBou played for the powerhouse Steveston Packers back in 1984.
The coach of the Packers happened to Anne Gillrie-Carre who has teamed up with Nathan Kishi to lead this promising Wildcat group.
At 59, Gillrie-Carre has been coaching basketball for over 40 years. When she left her position at McMath as vice-principal last June to become a District Administrator she wasn’t going to abandon her girls.
“Some people have hobbies and do other things but coaching is my passion,” said Gillrie-Carre.
“There is no better way of spending my free time than being in the gym at practices and games. This is a great group of girls to work with which makes even better.”
The Wildcats’ potential resembles Gillrie-Carre’s previous coaching stint at South Delta secondary. She took a talented group of players at a non-traditional basketball school and led them to a provincial junior title in 2003, then a third place finish at the “AAA” tournament two years later. The roster included her daughter Kira who has combined with a couple of her former teammates to guide the Grade 8 squad at McMath.
The recent lack of success for girls basketball in Richmond has a lot to do with the lure of other sports and the commitment it takes to play at a high level. While the Wildcats roster does include HPL-level soccer and club volleyball players, it also features a core that has basketball at the top of their priority list.
Justine McCaskill, Jessica Zawada and Jones are all part of the Langley-based Basketball B.C.Centre of Performance Program for top up-and-coming players.
Zawada’s younger sister Abby is also part of the program and showed enough potential to crack the Wildcats roster as a Grade 8. So did Lyric Custodio who also plays for a Surrey-based club team. Another Grade 10 — Julia Wilson — is a participant in a regional training program.
It all adds up to a team that should be a major threat to win the provincial junior title next March after a commendable seventh place finish with nothing but Grade 9s last spring. Gillrie-Carre and Kishi even put some thought into aging the team up to play three years of senior but they rather follow the South Delta blueprint and keep building the momentum while enjoying success at the junior level.
It was definitely something we talked about,” said Gillrie-Carre. “But it also would have meant leaving behind a couple of exceptionally talented Grade 8 girls that definitely can help (at this level). This is the best situation that will allow them to mature as players going into Grade 11.”
