Senior Girls Rainmakers on the Road to Langley with Saturday Zones Victory

Northwest Zones Champs the Charles Hays Senior Girls Rainmakers
They topped Caledonia for Northwest honours and now head off
to Langley for Provincials next month
(Photo courtesy CHSS)

We can now count two Charles Hays Basketball teams that have finalized their travel plans for Provincials, as the Charles Hays Senior Girls, joined the Junior Boys on the road to Langley, after claiming the Northwest Zones Saturday.

The Rainmaker victory came thanks to a late game push in what proved to  be a tough battle with an energetic Caledonia Kermodes squad on Saturday afternoon.

The Senior Girls and Caledonia, who have become fairly familiar competitors over the years, put on a high tempo show for the fans at the CHSS gymnasium with the contest going down to the very final seconds before the Rainmakers could secure the 53-50 banner clinching win.

The Saturday victory was preceded by a Friday night match up, which saw the Rainmakers top the Cal squad by a score of 47-33.

Caledonia had advanced to the finals after a victory on Saturday morning over Smithers, who came up just a little bit short in their quest at a Zones championship.

Named as Tournament MVP was Ruby Mason, while Carly Cochrane and Brittany Waite were named to the All Star squad from their Zones play.

After a hard fought battle on the court, the MVP and All Star honours were handed out
(photo courtesy Sarah McChesney/CHSS)

The Senior Girls tournament is set for March 1-4 at the Langley Events Centre.

Coaches Anna Ashley and Sarah McChesney and the rest of the Rainmakers will get a look at their first round opponent for the tournament on Wednesday night at Six, when the Draw for the Provincials is announced.

Ten of the eleven other teams that have qualified with Charles Hays for the AA Provincials have been announced and include:

Fraser Valley -- Langley Christian, GW Graham
Lower Mainland -- Seycove, Britannia
Okanagan -- Vernon, South Kamloops, Immaculata
Vancouver Island -- Ballenas, SMUS
North Central -- Duchess Park
Kootenay -- To Be Announced


The Junior Girls were also in action this weekend, however after some hard fought battles in the Bulkley Valley, the Junior Rainmaker's season came to an end after they ran into a red hot team out of Smithers.

In the Best of Three series, the Gryphons won Game One 52-31, claiming the Zones title Saturday with a 47-42 final.

Smithers will now advance to the Provincials from March 1 to 4 in Langley

The Junior Boys punched their ticket to the Provincials last weekend and will be heading to Langley this week for tournament play, the four days of action for the Junior Boys run from February 25 to 28.

Up next for Rainmaker fans is the Senior Boy's Zones Tournament that takes place at Charles Hays Secondary this weekend, details on the schedule and other notes will appear as the week moves forward.

You can follow the lead up to the Senior Zones and the planning ahead for Provincials by the Senior Girls and Junior boys through the CHSS Twitter feed.

Another valuable resource for hoops fans heading towards Provincials is Howard Tsumara's Varsity Letters website, which features a large volume of notes and updates on High School and University Basketball in British Columbia.

For our own collection of items related to Rainmaker Sports see our archive page.