Fun, fast and the future on display last week at Notre Dame Secondary in Vancouver.
Trevor Pridie is hoping he isn’t the next Jason Williams. Not that the longtime hooper and coach wouldn’t switch spots with the NBA legend — that’s White Chocolate, for the young ones — but Williams told a great story to The OGs podcast with Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem about coaching Anthony Edwards in a high school all-star game.
He had no idea who the future Minnesota Timberwolves was, nor that the No. 1 player in the country probably shouldn’t have started the game on the bench.
Pridie, who coaches the Trinity Western Spartan men’s team, was called into action to action to act as bench boss for one of the teams in the CYBL National Series B.C. All-Star Game.
"It's funny; I probably did. I'll probably look back on it in three years and have that Jason Williams moment when I look back on this game," he said with a laugh.
"'Man, I sat that kid in the fourth quarter? Shoot, what was I thinking?' So I'll definitely probably have that moment."
The best club basketball players in B.C., both boys and girls, were on hand for their respective games at Notre Dame high school last weekend. A few of the top female invitees had prior commitments and couldn't make it, but the male side had the elite roster.
Xavier McLean led Team Steph Curry to a 99-97 with over Team DeAaron Fox with a monster 34-point performance. He was named the black team's MVP, while Roko Maric earned the white team MVP with a 20-point night. Ashton Bain also had 20 for TDF.
In the girls' game, Team South Carolina (white) rolled past Team Notre Dame 74-55. Louise Dykstra's 13-point night made her TSC's MVP, while Ashley Vande Ven had 15 points and MVP honours for TND.
Like most all-star games, Pridie didn't have a ton of time to prepare for the night. It was show up, shake hands with the players, then sit tight. For most of the game.
But the fourth quarter came, and the score was tight. Suddenly Pridie and Vancouver Bandits coach Kyle Julius — the other guest coach — are on their feet, coaching the hell out of their teams.
"We didn't even have practice. So I mean, I showed up at the gym at 7 p.m. And then 'Nice to meet you guys. What was your name? Where do you go to school? Cool, nice to meet you,'" he said. "There's not much coaching. I was just putting guys in there, hoping everyone gets a good opportunity to enjoy the experience
"Obviously, you want to win the game. But you know, you're not practising with these guys. You don't really know them. You're just kind of coming together to just have some fun, put on some entertainment and hopefully give the kids a cool experience. ... But overall, I thought it was a competitive game. I thought kids played hard. I thought it was a really well put together event and a fun game."
Mitra Tshan, coach of the winning girls' team, said it was fun to get back to the type of all-star games that have been missing since Covid disrupted the landscape.
"It's a lot of fun to just coach kids that have so much potential, so much love for the game. For a lot of them, this was a great opportunity," she said. "I told them to enjoy the moment, because this does not come often, very easily."
Tshan put her team through its paces with some pre-game practice — offensive sets, out of bounds plays — but with most of her charges having never played together before, producing a fluid offence was a challenging. So, unlike most all-star games, they ramped up the defensive intensity after finding themsan earlyn a early deficit to bounce back for a 20-point win.
"There was a lot of competitiveness in the game on Saturday, a lot of back and forth, just a display of raw talent and just passion for the game," said Tshan. "We did say to them, 'have fun.' But as a coach, and especially an All-Star all-star game, I still have that ounce of competitiveness in me that wants to win the game."
Mike Selliah, one of the CYBL directors, said a variety of club and university coaches, were polled to come up with the names selected for the game. The provincial all-star games are still a relatively new part of the CYBL National Series, and it's being built up, but the Vancouver event went off without too many hitches.
It's just another way to shine light on the top players.
"So one of the main things that we're looking to do is that some of the student athletes probably have some offers or some interest already, but it's just another way for them to get an opportunity for exposure, to highlight their talents, to showcase themselves on a national platform," Selliah said in the lead-up to the game.
"There going to be lots of coaches that are going to be interested in this game, so that's really the main purpose for them. It's also a chance to compete against the other top players in their own province, which doesn't really come by very frequently."
Pridie may have oversold his lack of relationship with the all-star players, as he knows many of them through the provincial program, where he coaches the U17 squad. He had nothing but praise for players like Tyler Felt and his Spectrum high school teammate Justin Hinrichsen, both part of the Canada Elite club team.
On Felt: "He's a superstar. That kid's gonna be massive. I can't say enough good things about him."
On Hinrichsen: "He's just a winner, right? He's just super competitive. He's a winner. But the all star environment probably isn't as exciting to him."
On Maric: "Impressive, did some good stuff. He's really skilled. He was just impressive."
On Xavier McLean: "There's kids in this game that I haven't really seen, because they've been at prep schools outside the province — like Xavier. He was really good. And I think his game shows really well in this kind of event. Super athletic, gets up and down and well. I thought he showed really well."
On the girls' side, Louise Dykstra — who'd long played in the shadow of her older sister, Marah, has emerged as NCAA talent in her own right. Marah is playing with the Montana State Bobcats, while Louise will be heading south to play for the University of Northern Colorado Bears, and her MVP showing last weekend shows why.
Forwards Jessica Parkinson and Maia Rosarion balled out, as did guards Ashley Chio — who's at DME Academy prep school in Florida — and Hanna Grewal. "As a point guard myself, I always have much love for the ball handlers," said Tshan. (Grewal) really stepped it up and took command of the floor, hustled and distributed the ball."
Overall, it was a great event, said Pridie, and it did its job of shinning a light on deserving players.
"There's so much basketball going on, and there's so many clubs, and these kids are playing so much ... it's crazy. The club world, it just gets bigger and bigger every year it seems," he said. "There's just so many avenues, so much basketball to be played. There's a lot of opportunities for kids to play all summer.
"There's a lot of talent here. There's a lot of kids that are really skilled, really good in the province, a lot of kids who probably could play in this game that got left out. It's not easy to select these teams and pick these teams. There's so many good players.
"But it showcases kids in B.C., I think it's always positive and it's neat to do and bring people together, trying to get all these kids to see each other."
There was more action this past weekend at the Langley Events Centre, where the 10 teams in the B.C. Cup were whittled down to two: 3D Basketball and UPrep. The two teams slugged it out, with UPrep edging 3D 77-74 in overtime for the title of B.C.'s best, just before the Vancouver Bandits game.
It wpart of a 10-day stretch of hoops at the LEC and area, in the B.C. Basketball Festival, which will see more than 400 teams, 22 age groups, three Bandits games in that span. Learn more at thebandits.ca/festival.
BOYS ALL-STARS
Dominic Aquino
Ashton Bain
Thomas Beames
Trey Belanger
Robin Benipal
Sartaj Bhangu
Jack Clayton
Tyler Felt
Toren Franklin
Munroop Gill
Dorian Glogovac
Justin Hinrichsen
Dylan Homenick
Harvir Hot
Warris Isaiah
Frank Linder
Roko Maric
Xavier McLean
Jaden Mesfin
Nylan Roberts
Keoni Sacco
Logan Stewart
Ashton Uwamaliya
GIRLS ALL-STARS
Ella Bohn
Callie Brost
Malven Chahal
Ashley Chio
Louise Dykstra
Avery Geddes
Hanna Grewal
Jorja Hart
Eden Henderson
Saavyn Mann
Annabelle Neufeld
Saige Parfitt
Jessica Parkinson
Maia Rosarion
Sydney Roufosse
Neelum Side
Avery Sussex
Camryn Tait
Syra Toor
Ashley Ven Vande
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