The Oak Bay Bays and Claremont Spartans were following in the Chuck Taylor hightop footsteps of history late Saturday night.
The teams met in the final of the 71st Vancouver Island 4A boys’ high school basketball championship tournament at Mount Douglas Secondary gymnasium.
The Bays beat the Spartans 78-69 to join a starry array of past champions, from Porky Andrews’ and Gary Taylor’s respective Vic High Totems and Oak Bay teams of the 1950s and 1960s to two-time Olympian Gerald Kazanowski and the Nanaimo Islanders in 1978 to two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash and St. Michaels University School in 1992.
Both Oak Bay and Claremont will advance to the sa国际传媒 championships March 9-12 at the Langley Events Centre.
Oak Bay, coached by Chris Franklin, won its seventh consecutive Island championship dating to 2015 (there was no tournament in 2021 due to the pandemic). The Bays, the Montreal Canadiens and New York Yankees of Island boys’ basketball rolled into one, have won the 4A championship 26 times with no other team even close. Vic High and SMUS are tied for second with six championships each, Alberni has five, Mount Douglas and Nanaimo District four each, Claremont and Dover Bay three each, Belmont, Spectrum and Parkland with two each and Stelly’s, Cowichan, Wellington, Tsolum, Cumberland, Carihi, Ballenas and Courtenay with one title each.
Coach Brandon Dunlop’s Spartans, with six-foot-three guard and University of Victoria Vikes recruit Izzy Helman, edged the G.P. Vanier Towhees of Courtenay 41-39 and Oak Bay beat the Belmont Bulldogs 65-58 in the semifinals on Friday night.
Belmont beat the Cowichan Thunderbirds 86-57 and G.P. Vanier edged the Nanaimo Islanders 60-57 in Saturday morning consolation-side games to advance to Saturday evening’s third-place game, won 77-70 by the Towhees over the Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, host Mark Isfeld Ice and SMUS were meeting in the Island boys’ 3A championship game in progress at press time Saturday night in Courtenay. The revived Vic High Totems, looking for a return to long-ago glory, were in the third-place game against Timberline of Campbell River.
Host Brentwood College, looking for its fifth consecutive title, and the Lambrick Park Lions were meeting in the Island boys’ 2A championship game in progress at press time Saturday night. The Gulf Islands Scorpions and St. Andrew’s Sabres played in the third-place game.
The host Glenlyon-Norfolk Gryphons were playing Nanaimo Christian in the boys’ 1A Island championship game with Duncan Christian and Brookes Westshore in the third-place game.
The 3A, 2A and 1A boys’ provincial championships are also scheduled for March 9-12 at the LEC.
There is also the madness of March in girls’ high school hoops, with Claremont and Belmont have qualified for the sa国际传媒 4A championship beginning Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre following the Island tournament last weekend at Dover Bay. The Spartans have all-rounder Olivia Boulding, a Canadian junior national team volleyball player headed to NCAA Div. 1 Montana in that sport,
“It feels great to be heading to the LEC and to play off the Island for the first time in nearly two years,” said Claremont coach Darren Reisig.
Brentwood College, SMUS and Lambrick Park will represent the Island in the girls’ 2A provincial tournament and Alberni District and Carihi in the 3A provincial championship, also beginning Wednesday at the LEC.
