If there is one subject that is common to this year’s SMUS Senior Boys Basketball team it is chemistry.
Not that all 13 roster players share the same interest in beakers and Bunsen burners, but the members of the 2024-25 Blue Jags do share one thing—togetherness.
“I think with both the Grade 12s and 11s, we have been playing with each other for four or five years now,” says Blue Jags guard-forward Davis Hardy. “That can make a difference in close games. I think there is a really great energy with this team—that we come to play for each other rather than as individuals, so to speak.”
Hardy, a six-foot-four, left-handed sharpshooter, is a key element in that SMUS hoops chemistry equation. He leads a group of Grade 12 returnees that includes guards Wil Woods, Zaki Pelyhe and Jack Driscoll and forward Elliot Mairet, who at 6-7 anchors the Blue Jags’ inside game. They are joined by forward Brody Harris and guard Jakob Meadows, Grade 12s who both got some seasoning playing with the SMUS Senior B team last year.
Those Grade 12s are bolstered by a crop of promising Grade 11s, who were part of a SMUS Junior team that won four out of their five games at the BC Junior tournament last year. Dynamic Grade 11 guard Dani Pelyhe, younger brother of Zaki, is now handling the bulk of the point guard duties for the Senior Jags while forwards Jaiden Daniels and Will Zielinski add athleticism and talent up front. Other rising juniors include guards Parker Sheehan and Will Bateson while newcomer Victor Lee, from Taiwan, adds strength and depth in the backcourt.
Davis has been outstanding so far, averaging 18.7 points per game as the Blue Jags have gotten off to a 2-0 start in Lower Island AA league play and a 4-1 record overall—their only loss thus far to Wellington of Nanaimo. Dani Pelyhe has also scored well, averaging 13.8 points, including a driving lefthanded layup in the final minute that lifted SMUS to a dramatic 54-51 come-from-behind win at Pacific Christian School last week.
But there are other Blue Jags capable of putting up points, too, including Mairet who has the potential to be a force inside, Daniels, Woods and Zaki Pelyhe. Woods and the elder Pelyhe are averaging 10-plus points so far.
“We have a lot of players who can score,” Davis says. “I am confident that there will be other guys stepping up when it’s their time.”
Indeed, this year’s Blue Jags lineup is deeper and more well-rounded than last year’s squad, which narrowly missed out on a trip to the BC AA tournament with a fourth-place Island finish.
“They all share the ball really well and our defence is solid,” says Head Coach Reagan Daly, who is assisted this year on the bench by Steve Bates and Jamie Yorath. “We move the ball a bit better, we’re better in transition.”
Two areas where Daly would like to see improvement are taking fewer fouls on defence and getting the ball inside more often so that the team can utilize its height to balance its scoring. “Getting the big guys playing well is going to be really important for us,” he says.
As usual, it’s shaping up to be a dogfight between SMUS and rival Lambrick Park for Lower Island AA bragging rights, although Daly cautions that other teams such as PCS will be in the mix, too. “I would expect that it’s going to come down to that [SMUS vs. Lambrick for first place], though,” he says. “Whoever gets that top spot [on the Lower Island], is definitely in the driver’s seat.”
The top four teams from the Lower Island will advance to the Island AA Championships, which will be hosted by Lambrick February 20-22. Three berths for the BC Championships, March 5-8 in Langley, figure again to be up for grabs at Islands.
The SMUS Senior Boys have not reached the BC tournament since 2022.
“I feel like we have enough talent to be there this year,” Daly says. “I think we’re ahead of where we were last year. I just feel like we’re doing a lot of the right things and the spirit of the team is in the right place.”
SMUS is ranked No. 9 among BC AA teams at this early stage of the season. Lambrick Park is ranked eighth. The top Island team in the rankings is Brentwood College at No. 6, while Shawnigan Lake School is an Honourable Mention.
The Blue Jags could potentially see provincially top-ranked Collingwood this coming weekend when they travel to North Vancouver for the 16-team No Regrets Tournament. Mulgrave, a AA Honourable Mention, is also in the draw. SMUS will take on AAAA Handsworth of North Vancouver in its first game at 2 pm on Thursday. Prior to that, the Blue Jags will travel to Parkland for their final league game before the holiday break on Tuesday night at 7:30 pm.
The team has a very competitive schedule that also includes the St. Thomas More Chancellor tournament January 8-11 in Burnaby, the Victoria City Police Tournament January 16-18 at SMUS, and the Brentwood Countdown to Playoffs tournament January 23-25. In addition, the Blue Jags will host some tough competition over the Christmas break, December 28-30 when they will face Lambrick Park, Vancouver College and Quw’utsun in that order, and on January 2, when they will host Paul Kane Secondary of St. Albert, Alberta, in a doubleheader with the SMUS Senior Girls.
