By Chad Klassen

Titans prepare to go back-to-back at provincial basketball championships

Feb 22, 2019 | 3:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — The South Kam girls enter this year’s provincial basketball championship in the same position they were in last year as the No. 1 seed. 

This season, however, it took a loss by North Vancouver’s St. Thomas Aquinas in its league final for the Titans to squeak into the top spot. 

“We’re similar in some ways but different. I think we’re a little more experienced, a little more seasoned,” said senior girls’ head coach Del Komarniski. “We definitely miss [the Walkley twins, Lauren and Katherine, who graduated last year. Lauren was the MVP in the championship win] and their energy on defense, but we’ve picked up some players in their absence that we feel pretty.”

The Titans enter the tournament with some momentum of their own, hammering Vernon 97-52 in the Okanagan final to earn the first-place ranking. 

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“It’s an exciting feeling going back with a chance to win again, and I think everyone kind of has a sense of what it’s like to play in that tournament,” noted Gobeil. “So I think everyone’s really motivated and excited to see what we can do there.”

Komarniski, the man in charge of leading the team back to the promised land, says it will be a dog fight with a few teams he feels can win the tournament in Langley. 

“Yeah, I think there are four, five, maybe six teams in there that can play very well and definitely test us,” he said. “We’re not looking past anyone there. David Thompson’s our first-round opponent and we’re coming in ready to do whatever we can do to make sure we’re successful.”

The Titans have a dynamic duo of forward Maddy Gobeil and 6’6″ centre Olivia Morgan-Cherchas, who’s been away most of the season with the Canadian national junior team. Both players will be heavily leaned on if the school hopes to repeat. 

“Maddy’s a heck of a player. She’s one of the best female basketball players Kamloops has seen, and she obviously makes things easy for us,” noted Komarniski. “She scores inside, outside, she’s very physical, she competes hard, she’s developed into a strong leader. The girls rally around her.”

About Morgan-Cherchas, Komarniski says “she’s a national teamer, but I still think she’s underrated in terms of the amount of respect some people should be giving her. Her game is outstanding and some of the things she does can’t be measured by statistics.”

It’s been six years since the group of Maya Olynyk and Emma Wolfram won back-to-back provincial titles in 2012 and 2013. They competed in AAA, but for this group that’s down a level, repeating as champions would mean just as much.

“I just think it would create a super good legacy for the school, the community, South Kam basketball in general,” said Gobeil. 

Her coach added “these girls want to see a blue banner up on their gym, representing their work, and for the players that were here last year it’s an opportunity to repeat. They’d like to see a banner up there for just that. Then community-wide, I think that’s something everyone can get behind and feel good about.”