As the September to December high school athletics season wraps up for Brooks Secondary School Thunderbirds, real accomplishments have been made, according to athletic director Tony Rice.
“We’ve had an amazing amount of success,” said Rice.
Improvements, he said, have come on the field in junior boys soccer, on the court with senior girls volleyball, on outdoor trails with the cross-country teams and in the pool with aquatics.
“There are a lot of kids involved in these sports and a couple of kids who are double athletes,” said Rice. “There are three boys who played soccer and cross-country and a couple of kids who were in volleyball and swimming. On the whole, there are a lot of kids involved in one of these successful experiences, so that’s always a nice sign.”
According to Rice, because some of the performances have been put in by juniors, it bodes well for the future of Brooks athletics, such as the cross-country team, one of the largest the school has ever fielded, that competed in the provincials on the weekend.
“It was a great weekend,” said cross-country coach Graham Cocksedge. “To put it in perspective, two years ago there were just a few individual kids. I’m more concerned with how many kids are in the program and how many kids are moving up to the provincial level. At this point, I want to see numbers grow and a solid program.”
By all accounts, a solid foundation is being built for the team.
“When the results were being announced at the meet in Kelowna, the announcer reached the Thunderbirds on the list of team standings and said, ‘And in third place, a school I’ve never heard from before,’” said Cocksedge.
Consistently, the big, well-known schools dominate the province in all the different sports, said Cocksedge, but Brooks is starting to make a name for itself.
Brooks senior girls volleyball is also making its presence felt, putting a competitive team on the court and enjoying a winning season.
According to Doug Skinner, who coaches the team along with Jay Yule, the Thunderbird girls are ranked number one provincially in AAA volleyball. Top 10 rankings include five North Island teams. At the recent Timberline tournament in Campbell River, the team went undefeated.
“Playoffs start this week with North Islands,” said Skinner. “Eight teams compete with five advancing to the Island championships; we hope to make it.”
Junior girls volleyball, coached by Bill Rounis, won the Area Three zone playoff tournament and will move on to the North Island tournament this week, as will the junior boys volleyball team coached by Ken Holley. Grade eight girls volleyball Thunderbirds, coached by Matt Evans, are
moving on to zone playoffs.
Junior boys soccer has had an outstanding year with their best showing ever, said Rice.
At the Junior Boys Island Championship, held October 31 to November 1, the boys second-place finish was “the highest by a Powell River high school since Max Cameron’s third place back in 1999,” said Rice. “Some of those big schools with big money programs weren’t too happy when they left the field.”
Senior boys soccer, coached by Jason Rae, qualified for the North Islands, but were eliminated and will not move on any further.
