BC Men Nationals Champs 5 years in a Row
The BC Men’s Provincial Team captured their fifth consecutive national title with a 58-53 win over Ontario at the 2011 National Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Longueuil, Quebec.
The win over Ontario put an exclamation point on a very successful season for the entire men’s provincial high-performance program. The 11 men who were selected to represent BC at the National Championships epitomized a true team as every player made valuable contributions to the team’s gold medal run throughout the weekend. Similarly, the almost 30 men who make up the high performance program pushed and challenged each other since this past September to make sure that we could complete the program’s “strive for five.”
As for the provincial team’s performance at the 2011 National Championships, our opponents in the final probably best summed up how we played: “BC [played] typical British Columbia basketball. They were quick, aggressive with the chair. They had good outside shooting, and good finishing inside… Their press worked… They rocked us back on our heels a little bit.” (post-game comments from the tournament MVP, Team Ontario’s Adam Lancia).
Team BC’s co-coaches, Joe Higgins and Scott Allen, had preached all weekend long that BC basketball meant playing at a pace that would be uncomfortable for most other teams as well as ensuring the team used a lot of ball movement on offense and constantly communicated with each other on defense. The team’s ability to follow the game plan and work together a cohesive unit was coupled with a great depth of talent throughout the team’s entire roster to ensure that the men sent wave after wave of BC basketball at opponents all weekend long.
"As long as we keep getting solid contributions from our young guys coming in and the veterans keep playing at the same level, hopefully we can keep the streak going. The same core group guys have been playing together for 10 years which really helps,” said Bo Hedges. Hedges and teammate Erik Hagreen were named to the tournament all-star team.
For complete tournament results, please visit Wheelchair Basketball Canada website.
Special thanks to everyone involved who contributed to the men’s program success this season: BCWBS staff and board of directors, regional volunteers and coaches, and the friends, teammates and competitors from around the province who take part in our great sport. Final and special thanks go to Peter Taylor, the past men’s team coach whose many contributions on and off the court over the years helped start the winning streak that we are on right now at the National Championships.
2011 BC Men’s Provincial Team
#4 Erik Hagreen - 4.5 Vancouver
#5 Avril Harris - 4.5 Prince George
#6 Roberto Molina - 1.0 Burnaby
#7 Chad Palmer - 1.0 Langley
#8 Bo Hedges - 2.5 Burnaby
#9 Kevin Bowie - 4.5 Vancouver
#10 Anthony Purcell * - 3.5 Burnaby
#11 Jaimie Borisoff * - 1.0 Vancouver
#12 Richard Peter - 2.5 Vancouver
#13 Ross MacDonald - 4.0 Burnaby
#14 Deion Green - 4.0 Victoria
* - team co-captains
Coaches: Joe Higgins (Delta) and Scott Allen (Vancouver)
Congratulations to ALL!
