Jordan Jacobs, Sports Editor
Screams, shouts, laughs, and even tears, this year’s Senior Night was plenty full of emotion both on and off the court. On Friday, February the 1st, Walnut Grove had their annual Senior’s Night, where the senior girls and boys basketball teams have their last home games in front of a huge home crowd. For the graduating seniors of WGSS, this would be their last home game ever.
The senior girls were up first, and with one of the best reputations in the province fans were expecting an easy win for the girls against opponent Lord Tweedsmuir. The team didn’t disappoint, and it was clear within the first half of the game that the game would be a blowout; to no one’s dismay, it provided a great opportunity for the graduating seniors to show off their skills. Graduating senior and Grand Canyon University commit Tavia Rowell gave fans quite the show, with many of her signature long-range threes. Her teammates, SFU bound Jessica Wisotzki and soon-to-be star of Trinity Western University Rolande Taylor also gave quite the performances in front of the energy-filled crowd. The Gator girls won the game easily, beating Tweedsmuir by more than fifty points. While perhaps not a very emotional win, the girls were clearly battling mixed emotions at the end of their last home game. This was only heightened by a presentation of flowers and kind words from their past and present coaches, that brought many in the crowd to tears. This is also the first time in WGSS history, that ALL graduating members of the senior girls’ basketball team are continuing their careers into university – and we wish them the best of luck!
The presentation of the graduating players of the Senior Boys basketball team happened during the break between the two games. The graduating players include Jarrett Jacobs, Matthew Martens, Dylan Ledoux, Jacob Thorpe, Ben Pascoe, and Jake Simons. (Simons was sadly not able to play in the game due to an injury). The boys handled their thank you speeches with grace and gratitude, provoking even the most hardcore of fans to smile when they individually ran up to the stands and gave their parents their flower bouquet. Yet, the sweet atmosphere did not last long, as the entrance of competing team Mouat into the gym, soon reminded everyone of the task still at hand.
“We were fired up after coach’s speech and ready to rock. The crowd brought a ton of energy.”
-Dylan Ledoux
The game was tense from before the first whistle when Walnut Grove and Mouat fans quickly started having heated arguments from within the crowd. This translated onto the court quickly, as the game grew fast-paced and aggressive from both sides. This didn’t stop the WGSS boys from rallying back against the team they had previously lost to twice. The boys used their skills of tough defence, and a variety of shooting, to stop Mouat from winning. Matt Martens was a star from beyond the three-point line finishing with 24 points, while Jarrett Jacobs continued to flow through the opponent defence and finished with 34 points and 12 assists. Kyle Kong was also a force to be reckoned with from inside the paint and finished with a solid 18 points and 12 rebounds. The boys ended up securing the win late in the 4th quarter, causing both the crowd and the team to go wild with the too-close-for-comfort score of 80-76.
” It being our last home game we were ever going to play of high school basketball, some of the guys were emotional for sure. But once the game started going … it was just basketball.”
-Jarrett Jacobs
Good luck to both of the Senior teams as they enter into the Fraser Valley Championships, and then – I’m predicting this now – Provincials!
