The L.V. Rogers senior basketball teams will be battling it out this weekend to see which Kootenay team will represent the region at the AA provincials next month.
Hosted by the Nelson high school, the playoffs begin on Friday afternoon at the LVR gym.
“We have a good team,” says LVR head coach Ross Naka. “We have a lot of guys that went through this last year so we have an experienced team.”
The Bombers boys team is the top-ranked team heading into the six-team tournament. Other Kootenay schools attending include Golden, David Thompson (Invermere), Grand Forks, J.L. Crowe (Trail) and either Prince Charles (Creston) or Stanley Humphries (Castlegar).
“When we get to this tournament we are kind of coming in blind because we don’t play a lot of games in the Kootenays,” says Naka, who has focused his team’s outings on the more competitive Okanagan schools. “I would like to think we have a really good chance of being successful this weekend.”
The LVR boys first game is Saturday morning at 9 a.m. when they will take on the winner of the quarter final match that will be played Friday. If they win that game, they will advance to the finals which will tip-off at 5:45 p.m. at the Fairview court.
“We get two games and they are important games,” Naka says.
“We just have to make sure we stay sharp, work hard in practice, stay focused and are ready to go when it’s game time.”
The girls side of the draw features the host Bombers, David Thompson, J.L. Crowe and either Prince Charles or Stanley Humphries. The local girls get underway on Friday night starting at 6:45 p.m. If the Bombers win that game they will play at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The girls final is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The BC High School AA Championships will be held in Kamloops next month.