Three local girls have been selected to the North Island All-Star Basketball team for a game on April 5 in Victoria.
Brittany Britz, Shaelyn Peachey and Michaela Witte have been selected to the 27th annual Vancouver Island Seniors Classic. The game, which takes place at Spectrum School, will feature the best of the best from all over the Island for the final high school basketball game of their careers.
“It’s really an honor to be able to play in this game and the fact that we get to go in together is really cool,” Britz said. “For Shaelyn and I to finish off our high school basketball careers together like this, it’s pretty special.”
The girls have known each other since a young age and all went to middle school together, also playing alongside one another. Once it came time to head to high school, Britz and Peachey went to Ballenas Secondary while Witte went to Kwalikum Secondary.
“The rivalry part of it was kind of weird at first but it’s not as bad as it used to be,” Witte said. “The first two years of high school it was kind of bad but it really died down once we hit Grade 11. We’ve been friends for so long that it wasn’t really something that mattered.”
The game will not only showcase the best that Vancouver Island has to offer with the 2014 graduating class, but will allow scouts for college and universities to get one more glimpse at the talent they might have been keeping an eye on all season.
For all three girls, it’s one more chance to tune up before the ID camps start for many universities and colleges.
For Britz, her post secondary education plans could include Vancouver Island University but she hasn’t decided yet. Both Peachey and Witte have been looking at Camosun College as a potential place to continue their basketball careers as well.
“There have been a few schools I’ve been thinking about once high school is finished. I’ve been looking at Camosun College and a few schools in Alberta too,” Peachey said. “I’d like to keep playing basketball after high school if I could, it’d be nice.”
Both Britz and Peachey finished off an impressive senior season at Ballenas, going unbeaten in their regular season and winning their division, while securing the number one spot heading into the Island Tournament after beating Mark Isfeld for the North Island championship.
The Whalers came up just shy of the provincials, for the third time in their last three seasons.
There will be two games featuring the boys at 4:30 and 8:00 while the girls game is slated for 6:15 p.m.
There have been plenty of big names featured at this tournament over its last 27 years, including two time NBA MVP Steve Nash.
Former Ballenas Whaler Nick Adams (2006 grad) was named MVP and scored 25 points for his squad, which won their game 86–82 in 2006.
“To be selected to the all–star team is pretty awesome. We’re all really lucky to get to do this and I think that it’s going to be something that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives,” Witte said.