Carihi has probably been best known in sports for producing 2000 Sydney Olympian and CIS-champion University of Victoria Vikes basketball great Eric Hinrichsen.
But there should be at least some shout-out as well for the Campbell River institution鈥檚 girls soccer team, which has gone to the sa国际传媒 triple-A or double-A championships 10 times during the 18-year tenure of coach John Jepson.
Tyees alumnae during that run have included players such as former pro and UVic Vikes scoring star Liz Hansen, currently with the Peninsula Co-op Highlanders.
The bid to qualify for provincial tournament No. 11 got off to a good start as the defending Island champions and North Island top-seed Tyees defeated the South Island No. 4 Reynolds Roadrunners 1-0 and North Island No. 3 Alberni Armada 6-0 at the 2013 triple-A Island high school championship, which began Monday at Braefoot and Hampton turf fields.
Several of the Tyees players have been together for a decade in coach Mick Pomeroy鈥檚 Campbell River Tidal Waves youth soccer program that has won sa国际传媒 鈥楤鈥� Cup and Coastal Cup championships.
Cohesion is not a problem for this group, even under the freakish weather cell of rain and wind that suddenly opened up Monday afternoon over Braefoot Park as the Tyees were putting the finishing touches on their second clean sheet of the day.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had some successes, although this year the South Island seems to be stronger than the North Island,鈥� said Jespson, a native of Manchester.
鈥淭here are five teams here in the Island tournament that would be very good and worthy Island representatives at the sa国际传媒 championships.鈥�
Included among them are the Belmont Bulldogs, which last Thursday won their first Ryan Cup for South Island supremacy. The Langford school was unbeaten in its two games Monday, beating Cowichan 5-0 and playing Stelly鈥檚 to a 2-2 draw.
Only the top two teams will advance to the provincial high school triple-A tournament May 30-June 1 at Argyle Secondary in North Vancouver.
The Island round-robin concludes today with Carihi meeting South Island No. 2 Oak Bay (2-0) at Hampton and Alberni (0-2) playing Reynolds (0-2) at Braefoot, both at 9:30 a.m.; and Stelly鈥檚 (1-0-1) meeting Cowichan (0-2) at Braefoot and Belmont taking on Dover Bay (1-1) at Hampton, both at 11 a.m.
The championship game is this afternoon at 2:30 at Hampton with the two pool winners squaring off for the Island title. (The double-A Island tournament also concludes today at Shawnigan Lake).
Carihi鈥檚 Eilidh Rasmussen is headed to play next season for the UVic Vikes and Tyee teammate Claire Pomeroy for the University of Calgary Dinos as the Island tournament is being well scouted by CIS teams.
Among those out watching the action Monday was UVic assistant coach Dave Dew. He said there are 鈥渁 couple of dozen鈥� players good enough in the Island high school tournament to play at the next level.
鈥淲e鈥檝e even already identified the top Grade 9, 10 and 11 players coming up,鈥� he noted.
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