When it comes to the SMUS Senior Girls Basketball program, an age-old saying applies – “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The Senior Blue Jags have been one of the very best girls’ teams in the province at any level for the past three seasons and this year is no different. SMUS is the No. 1-ranked AA team in BC and a favourite to win the provincial title in March.
The Blue Jags have constantly challenged themselves against the best competition in the province for the past three seasons. Those seasons have concluded in back-to-back second-place finishes at the AAA level, following a provincial third-place finish in 2022.
“We’ve had a formula that clearly works from a competitive perspective,” says Head Coach Lindsay Brooke. “We’re taking the same approach this year because, ultimately, it does work – we just haven’t happened to win our last game of the season the past two years.”
Star guard Charlie Anderson, a Grade 12 who is off to a sizzling start this year, says getting so close to the ultimate prize has made the team even hungrier this season. Anderson and backcourt mate Avery Geddes, both first-team BC Tournament all-stars last year, are the five-foot-eight twin engines that power this year’s Blue Jags.
“I think the past two years have definitely created more of a drive for our whole team to want it more,” Anderson says. “I think we understand how much pressure there is and how much emotion there is in a final and we’re better equipped to deal with it.”
The Blue Jags are off to a solid start this season, with a 4-1 record heading into this week. They finished third in the Victoria Christmas Invitational, including an impressive 57-38 win over perhaps their biggest AA rival, Surrey’s Holy Cross Crusaders, who are ranked No. 2 behind the Jags in the latest BC poll. Anderson led the way in that game with 24 points, 20 rebounds and seven steals – her second double-double of the young season.
Meanwhile, with Geddes at the point, the Blue Jags have a steady, experienced and talented floor general who is a three-time BC Provincial Team member and an early commit to the UVic Vikes women’s basketball program for next season. With a strong 24-point performance, Geddes was instrumental in an impressive 63-52 victory over BC AAAA No. 5 Argyle of Vancouver in the Christmas Invitational.
Other returning seniors include forwards Olivia Pickering, a 6-footer who will be counted on to anchor the Blue Jags inside, and Cate Pontefract, as well as highly athletic defensive specialist Joss Olcen. A strong group of Grade 11s up from the SMUS Junior team that finished ninth in BC last year includes Indigo Edgington, Mya Beare, Crystal Cai, Caitlyn Chen and Leila Mostachfi. And a notable addition arrived this fall in international student Isabela Herrera Orduna, an athletic 5-9 guard-forward from Mexico who has already contributed significantly for the Blue Jags on both sides of the ball.
“We’re deeper this year for sure,” says Brooke, who is assisted on the bench by Carmen Lapthorne, Kate DeGoede and Gary Brooke. “Our Grade 11s have had a good run at junior and they are familiar with what we are trying to do. We have good buy-in from all our players. It’s an intense commitment – they get one week off at Christmas but otherwise we are pretty full-on.”
That’s part of the formula mentioned earlier – training relentlessly and travelling off the Island as necessary to get the best competition. Last weekend’s tournament included a number of highly-ranked BC AA and AAAA teams, including the perennial AAAA powerhouse and currently third-ranked Riverside Rapids who handed SMUS an 84-50 loss in a semifinal. This week, the Blue Jags are in Langley for the prestigious Tsumura Basketball Invitational. They will meet AAAA No. 10 Kelowna in their first game on Wednesday, beginning at 7:45 pm. All tournament games will be streamed live at no charge at https://stream.prestosports.com/tfsetv
If SMUS beats Kelowna in that Tsumura opener, the Blue Jags will most likely face the Brookswood Bobcats, who beat them 69-63 in overtime in last year’s BC AAA final. SMUS is playing at the AA level this year – where the school fits in in terms of student numbers – and Brookswood is currently ranked No. 2 at the AAAA level, so the teams will not see each other again until March. Nevertheless, it would still be an intriguing rematch should it materialize Thursday.
“We have a ton of competitive games before and after Christmas,” Brooke says.
The Blue Jags will take part in the Riverside tournament December 18-20. They will host Paul Kane Secondary of St. Albert, Alberta, in a doubleheader exhibition with the Senior Boys on January 2. They are entered in the Chilliwack Top 10 tournament at GW Graham January 9-11 and will also host a strong Victoria Police Tournament girls’ field January 16-18 that includes GW Graham, Charles Best, Oak Bay, Lambrick Park and Southridge. Other tournaments in January will be at Oak Bay (January 23-25) and the Tessa Tournament on the Lower Mainland at the end of the month (January 31 - February 1).
Lambrick Park, currently No. 10 in the BC AA rankings, figures to be the Blue Jags’ top competition on the Island this year. The two teams will meet in SMUS’s final regular-season game at Lambrick on February 4. Among other teams predicted to be in the mix for the BC AA title are No. 3 Langley Christian, No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 5 Southridge.
The Island Championship will be a showcase event featuring both the AA Championship and the Junior Girls Championship, hosted by SMUS February 13-15, and the BC tournament will again be staged in the Langley Event Centre February 26 to March 1.
As usual, the Blue Jags hope to be there on the BC tournament’s final day when, for the first time, the girls’ championship games will be played on the LEC’s Arena Bowl court.
