LORD BYNG SECONDARY — The last time the Grey Ghosts won a senior girls city championship, PCs were years from mass-production and still decades away from the hands of Vancouver teenagers.
On Monday afternoon at one of the city's oldest high schools, 45 girls texted and took pictures on almost as many cellphones as they commemorated a historic first and prepared to hang three new banners for three city champion basketball teams: the bantam, juvenile and junior girls.
“In two years we have six city championships between us, which is pretty cool,” said a forward with the junior squad, Emma Mackay.
The bright blue pennants were raised to the rafters this week alongside a large and aging grey banner celebrating the last time the senior team won the city title. That was 1988.
“The gym is busier than it has been in years,” said P.E. teacher Scott Redden. “My goal before I leave here — every grey [banner] will be gone.”
The girls basketball program is doing its part. At Lord Byng, the senior girls have played in the second-tier, non-competitive city league since Tier II was introduced in the 2007-08 season. That will change — if not next year, then the one after that.
“Tessa is the mother of the program." -- Scott Redden
“They still are Tier II, they won’t be anymore,” said Redden. “As these girls go up and if the coaching stays the same, the level of basketball here will be always at a Tier 1 level. We have a competitive team at every level, which is awesome. That is what you want.”
Imagining their potential, he said, “These girls if they stay together, they will be a scary bunch in a couple years.”
With coach and former Canada West All-Star basketball player Tessa Valg, the current Grade 10 cohort has won the city title each year since Grade 8. Valg’s daughter Skyler plays on the provincial team and her son (also Skyler's twin) plays up on Byng’s senior boys team.
The bantam girls drawn from the youngest grade were 8-0 through the Vancouver public school season and won the city title 47-18 over Point Grey. At the next level, the juvenile girls were 4-0 and defeated Churchill at Templeton secondary for the city banner. The junior girls, which includes one player in Grade 9, also went undefeated, leading the league with seven wins and no losses. They took the city championship at home over the Churchill Bulldogs.
“Our coach has really started a bit of a legacy because she started getting younger girls into basketball and she’s been doing it for the whole three grades,” said Mackay.
On Wednesday, the Grey Ghosts start their run at the junior provincial championships at the Langley Events Centre. They are ranked ninth and will likely finish at or around No. 9.
Valg, who played for the University of Victoria and at UBC, said she returned to the sport three years ago by coaching the 12- and 13-year-old Grade 8 players the very basics: fundamentals like footwork and that all-too-famous ready stance.
Each season brings more skills and advanced knowledge, she said, but the majority of city teams lag behind basketball hotspots like the Fraser Valley and its numerous well-developed club and school programs anchored by stable leadership.
Praised as a passionate and intense coach, Valg is credited with bringing new life to the girls basketball program at Byng. “Tessa is the mother of the program,” said Redden. “You can quote me on that.”
She has keys to the gymnasium, as does UBC women’s volleyball coach Doug Reimer, who coaches the Lord Byng junior squad that includes his daughter. Together they are drawing coaching talent from the community and school as well as developing sports programs that attract athletes to the prominent arts school.
At the senior boys level, school athletic director Kevin Sandher led the Grey Ghosts to third place finishes at the AA/AAA city and AAA Lower Mainland tournaments. They compete next week at the B.C. Championships in Langley.
Modelling after proven success, Valg points to Vancouver secondary schools such as Britannia and Churchill, which not only have a fantastic competitive rivalry but over generations have also invested in girls basketball and can count on committed coaches year after year.
“Brit has been doing it for years,” she said. “They have a great, lasting system worked out and they have outstanding success.”
She is taking notes from those examples and reaches out to the elementary schools that feed into Lord Byng to invite interested players to attend training sessions. She’s already building for a future that may not include her.
“I’m really hoping that within the school system, someone takes it on and we can leave them with a template because otherwise it could just fade away,” she said. “I’m hoping it doesn’t become transient.”
She also aspires to see the entire city league raise its game.
“We just have to keep working on it,” said the pharmacist, who played on the Vikes with Prince of Wales P.E. teacher Lori Clarke and returned to her varsity sport because of her children.
“I hadn’t done anything with basketball for some 20 years since finishing university. Each year I learn something new. When I started, I had no idea what the landscape looked like but now I’m able to help the person looking after the Grade 8s and now the Grade 9s. That is what comes with experience. You can imagine the folks who have been running their programs for 10, 15 years and that’s what it takes if you look at any of the successful programs and it’s coming from within.”
As for the junior girls in her charge, Byng might be putting up more banners once they reach the senior level.
“They keep exceeding my expectations,” said Valg. “They put in so much work. We will see what happens in the next two years.”
Twitter: @MHStewart
