West Kelowna high school basketball team makes historic run to provincials

West Kelowna’s Mount Boucherie Secondary School Bears are battling it out for the title of provincial champions in Langley this week.

The Bears won the 4A Senior Boys Valley Basketball Championship late last month and now the team is heading into its first game of the BC School Sports Basketball Provincial Championships tonight, March 5, in Langley.

“It’s been a culmination of many, many hours and many, many guys doing a lot of work over the years. We’ve been trying to get to this spot for 20 years,” the team’s coach Kelly Broderick told iNFOnews.ca.

Broderick said this year’s team is fearless and unbothered by the pressure.

“Guys are excited. It’s a different want with these guys. They’re not scared of the big moments,” he said.

If tonight goes well the Bears are going up against the Spectrum Thunder out of Victoria next.

“They’re an extremely talented and loaded team. And they’re by far the favourite to win the whole thing. So we’re excited about that type of challenge if we get there,” he said.

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Broderick said there could be a huge crowd at the tournament’s final scheduled for Saturday night.

“Last year someone told me there were more than 10,000 people at the final,” he said. “They’ve played in front of a lot of big crowds, including our home tournament that’s packed the whole weekend. It’s a type of energy that you have to feel to be able to deal with. And they’ve done a really good job with that.”

The players are driven, but Broderick said the support from the school and the community has helped encourage the players to work even harder.

“They feel that there’s so many people behind them, past players, and have sent a lot of messages that they’re with us and our school’s really gotten excited. There’s a buzz in the building,” he said.

He said winning the championship would mean a lot to the players, and everyone in the community.

“I think they’ve realized it’s more than just them, that this has really brought our school together maybe a little bit more and our community and really the basketball family in all of the Okanagan.”