Special players make for special results.
Can Diego Maffia do what two-time NBA MVP Steven Nash did in guiding St. Michael鈥檚 University School to the 1992 sa国际传媒 high school basketball championship or what two-time Olympian Gerald Kazanowski accomplished in leading Nanaimo District to the 1978 sa国际传媒 crown? They are among 13 Island teams to have won the top-tier sa国际传媒 boys鈥� high school hoops championship, but none since the Dover Bay Dolphins in 2007.
The Oak Bay Bays thought they would end the drought last year, but Chris Franklin鈥檚 top-ranked Bays were toppled in a second-round upset by the Burnaby South Rebels, who went on to win their first provincial title since 1979.
The Bays are again Island champions, but without the provincial top ranking this year.
They do, however, have the X-Factor in the mercurial Maffia, who set the all-time single-game sa国际传媒 high school scoring record this season with 96 points. Maffia also had a 67-point game this season and rained 53 points down on the Belmont Bulldogs in the Island championship game.
The Bays open today at the Langley Events Centre, in the sa国际传媒 Quad-A championships, at 11:45 a.m. against Fraser Valley fourth-seed W.J. Mouat of Abbotsford.
The Island second-seed Bulldogs play the breakfast special at 8:30 a.m. against the Okanagan-champion Kelowna Owls.
This represents unfinished business from when Maffia was a Grade 11 player in the 2018 sa国际传媒 championship tournament that the Bays were favoured to win.
鈥淲hen seven of our eight rotation players graduated, some people thought we would not be contenders as much this season,鈥� Maffia said.
But the Bays are back, thanks to the starry Maffia, who made sa国际传媒 high school hoops an offer it couldn鈥檛 refuse with a season for the ages.
Meanwhile, it was Belmont, also the second Island seed last year, which surprisingly went further than the Bays in making the provincial semifinals in 2018. The Bulldogs will be looking to make another run this week at the LEC.
The chances of emulating those classic all-Island Vic High-Oak Bay provincial finals of the 1960s are nil, however, because Oak Bay and Belmont are on the same side of the draw.
Island teams that have won the top-tier sa国际传媒 championship are the legendary Porky Andrew鈥檚 Vic High Totems of 1959, 1962 and 1969, Bill Garner鈥檚 Totems of 1966, Gary Taylor鈥檚 Oak Bay Bays of 1965 and 1968, Don Horwood鈥檚 Bays of 1973, 1974 and 1977, John Levering鈥檚 Nanaimo District Islanders of 1978, Ian Hyde-Lay鈥檚 SMUS Blue Jags of 1992, Randy Steel鈥檚 Ladysmith 49ers of 1995 and Mark Simpson鈥檚 Dolphins of 2007.
Last year, many believed sa国际传媒 2018 Double-A champion Brentwood College was the best overall team in the province, regardless of tier. Brentwood beat most of the top Quad-A teams during the season, but did not move up to contest that level at provincials.
Brentwood graduated many of its top players from last year鈥檚 talented team, but Blake Gage鈥檚 squad is back in the Double-A tournament at the LEC as the Island champions open today at 3 p.m. against Okanagan No. 3 Westsyde.
Island Double-A second-seed SMUS opens today at 1:15 p.m. against the Britannia Bruins of Vancouver and the Island third-seed Lambrick Park Lions against Fraser Valley champion Langley at 7:45 p.m.
The Triple-A championship is also at the LEC with the Island-champion G.P. Vanier Towhees of Courtenay opening against Fraser Valley third-seed Rick Hansen of Abbotsford at 6:15 p.m., Island second-seed Reynolds Roadrunners against Okanagan-champion Vernon at 1:15 p.m., and Island third-seed Mark Isfeld of Courtenay against Lower Mainland-champion Sir Charles Tupper of Vancouver at 3 p.m.
The Single-A provincials also open today at the LEC with Island-champion Glenlyon-Norfolk and Island runners-up Nanaimo and Gold River competing.
