VSS girls basketball team heading to the provincials

Feb 19, 2025 | 2:26 PM

The senior girls basketball team out of Vernon Secondary School will head to the Lower Mainland to play in the provincial tournament this month.

The VSS Panthers team are one of 16 going to play in the AAA Girls Basketball Provincial Championships in Langley. They will attend a banquet Tuesday, Feb. 25, then play in games the following four days, with the championship final scheduled for Saturday, Mar. 1.

The coach of the team is confident they have a good shot of making it to that last game.

“We’re ranked Number 4 in the province, so our goal would be to get a medal and play really well for four games [ahead of the final Sunday],” Dave Tetrault, coach of the VSS Senior Girls Panthers, told Vernon Matters.

“We’re blessed with a bunch of kids who are really dedicated and quite talented and motivated. We don’t have a ton of kids, we have nine girls on the team, but those nine girls are exceptional.”

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He added only two of the players are Grade 12 students, while four are in the 11th Grade and three are in Grade 10, but told Vernon Matters that the girls are dedicated and have put in the work to make them “exceptional players” and able to compete with teams that have more players.

“I don’t really talk about it with [the team] because I think, ‘It doesn’t matter how big you are or how old you are, we just play,’ and it’s pretty cool to see because they are quite young but they don’t play that way. They are actually quite mature in how they handle things and are pretty impressive for such a younger group,” Tetrault said.

The Panthers will play in the AAA division, but there will also be A, AA and AAAA games taking place at the tourney over the week.

The coach noted the VSS Seniors Girls Basketball team had made the provincials 19 times in the last 20 years, but only made it to the final game twice, where they lost both times, and they hope to return to Vernon with some hardware following the tournament.

The games will be broadcast online through the Langley Events Centre website.

Lisa Fogel, a parent of one of the athletes, said it was important to celebrate the moment and the team as they prepare for the tournament.

“It’s quite an accomplishment for any team to make it to the provincials, but for an Interior team competing against all those big Lower Mainland is very indicative of the work the girls have put in this year to get to this tournament,” Fogel told Vernon Matters.

“We have to make it special and celebrate because, for some girls on the team, they’ll never return to this tournament because their high school career is now over, and other girls, you never know what the future holds and you’re never sure if you get the chance to return. So it’s pretty special.”

She added her daughter and the other Panthers were excited to head to the Lower Mainland and take on the other teams from across B.C.

by Liam Verster

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