Gary SimroseNVSS Athletics Director
The 2015 – 2016 edition of the Nechako Valley Secondary Senior Boys Basketball team has wrapped up another season by giving the next generation of players a hand up. Team members are Tykenn Kilpatrick, Jonathan Mueller, Dawson Currie, Caleb Jensen, Tanner Dykstra, Hunter Brophy, Quin Wall and Ethan Lank. During the week of February 29 to March 4 these extremely busy young men spent 10 hours of their time teaching elementary students the finer points of basketball “FUNdamentals”. The event marks the 29th annual camp and proved to be one of the best ever. There were all sorts of skills, drills, contests and activities with many prizes and awards to be won. The camp is for students in grades 3 to 7 and this year brought out one of the most focused and keen groups of players we have ever had participate in the camp.
The camp is organized and coordinated by the head coach of Viking Basketball but the Viking players perform all of the coaching and officiating duties. Each year we recognize those players that show the most promise as coaches through their enthusiasm, by being positive role models, demonstrating leadership and working well with the camp participants. This year, the recipients of the most promising coach award were Jonathan Mueller, Caleb Jensen and Tykenn Kilpatrick.
The team of Andrew Derksen, Ethan Wheeler, Wendy Schultz, Corbet Kelemen, Travis Wheeler, Nikles Kadonaga, Grayson Turgeon, Aiden Simrose, Treyken Stephen, Nick Fergusson and Jared Hoglund coached by Caleb Jensen and Jonathan Mueller were the winners of the camp team tournament.
At the end of the camp teams each had shooting contests to select representatives for the Foul Shot Showdown which is done in front of the entire gymnasium! There were three finalists in the senior girls division (grade 6 & 7) with Wendy Schultz defeating Rena Daniel in an exciting sudden death shootout after they were tied following regulation. In the highly contested junior boys (grades 3 to 5) division, there were 9 finalists and grade three student Aiden Simrose, the last shooter, made 9 out of 10 shots to earn the victory. Lachlan Petersen overcame the other four finalists in the senior boys division to win that category by making an impressive 8 out of 10 shots.
Well done to all coaches and participants! It was an excellent week of basketball with tremendous improvement shown by all.
After a long and eventful season where the youthful Vikings improved tremendously each time on the court, they are looking forward to a productive and equally busy off season. Spring basketball will be starting after the March break. This organization works with great flexibility to schedule around other sports the student athletes are already involved in.