 |
| The 2015 AAA Northwest Zone champs Charles Hays Sr. Boys Rainmakers Ready for Provincials at Langley (photo courtesy of CHSS Sports) |
A week of fine tuning is over and this week the trek to Langley is underway, as Camp Rainmaker heads off to the AAA Provincial Basketball Tournament.
The Charles Hays squad claimed the Northwest Zones in late February, staking their claim to the Northwest title with a convincing victory over Caledonia from Terrace and two highly entertaining match ups with Smithers Secondary.
The success at Zones, bringing part one of the 2014-15 plan to a successful end, a win that was celebrated and then quickly put aside with a much larger challenge now looming.
The return to the Provincials offers up the chance to wrap up some unfinished business in Langley, with the Rainmakers hoping to work their way through the tournament's early days. Looking to secure another date in the Tournament final, where the coaches Bishop, will look to guide their team in its quest to bring back a Provincial banner for the Charles Hays Gym.
The road as always at Provincials won't be an easy one to navigate, the Charles Hays squad were a bit of an unknown quantity last year, few knew much about the program, or what the Rainmakers brought to the court.
The run through the Langley tournament of 2014 however changed that significantly, as with each victory last year, basketball fans and the media of the Lower Mainland took note.
This year, with a number of high profile tours of the Greater Vancouver area under their belt and a fair amount of media exposure to go with it, the Rainmakers will be one of the top teams that all others will be looking to knock off.
As they wrapped up their Northwest work, the Provincial rankings delivered the Charles Hays Senior Boys a season high placement of third overall, the extra notch a well deserved reward for their hold on the rankings listings for much of the year.
With tournament time approaching and the first round seeds revealed, the Rainmakers found a number four marker beside their logo for the Wednesday tip off against Comox Valley's Mark Isfeld Ice.
The Rainmakers will not be a mystery for the Ice, it was a Charles Hays victory over Isfeld in last years semi final match up that sent the Rainmakers on to their Tournament final, so the Ice will be more than up to the challenge of looking to make their mark early on in this years event.
For those that missed the Tournament preview show from ten days ago, you can check out the rankings and observations from Chris Kennedy and the Vancouver Province's Howard Tsumura below:
You can review the full Rainmaker season to this point from our archive page here.
Starting tomorrow, we will track the Rainmakers travels in Langley from our results page, which will also feature our archive of stories and video from the tournament as the week moves forward.
Our Results and Features page for the 2015 Tournament can be found here.
For more information on the Rainmakers in Langley check out the CHSS Sports twitter feed, where any late breaking items of interest can be found through the week ahead.
For now though, we offer up a chance to learn a little more about the teams taking part in this years tournament.
Below we have combed through what the fifteen other communities heading to Langley have to offer.
Check it out, we call the feature, our Pre-Tournament Scouting report:
Rainmakers first opponent Mark Isfed Ice
Comox -- Ice off to B.C. 3A boys basketball championship
Notes on some of the rest of the AAA Line up for Provincials
Dawson Creek -- Punching their ticket
Nanaimo -- NDSS wins Island title
North Vancouver/North Shore -- Windsor out duels Sutherland to win Howe Sound AAA title
North Vancouver/North Shore -- Howe Sound Senior AAA Boys Final (video)
Richmond -- Richmond teams nail down B. C. berths
Surrey -- Surrey teams in Provincial finals
Surrey -- Dragons Qualify for Provincials
Tri-Citites -- Best boys advance with twin thriller wins
Vancouver -- Tupper looks to make up for last year's disappointment
Vernon -- Panthers off to Provincials
No comments:
Post a Comment