50p
Basketball: The Team
“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work”
-Vince Lombardi
From its first days at the newly reconstructed Brentwood campus in 1963 until today, generations of Brentonians have experience the joys of basketball at our school and this year, Brentwood's Senior Boys’ Basketball team had its best season ever, earning a Bronze medal at last month’s BC High School Basketball Tournament in Kamloops.
Led by determined coaches and an exemplary captain, the team developed a unique sense of camaraderie and friendship. United by their shared hours in practice, training and games, the team is linked by their genuine love for the sport. With only 15 players on the team, the exclusive group is its own community where all players are also friends and where every person is willing to help each other succeed.
Combined with tenacity and a constant desire to improve their skills, this year’s team has developed into champions due to their own effort. This “neat bunch of guys” as Coach Blake Gage earnestly describes them, has committed themselves to the sport and the team, giving their all in. This year’s team is a group of “best friends” willing to “play for each other”, according to Mr. Gage, who counts the team’s unprecedented successes as a “testament to the team’s hard work”. But hard work is easy among friends.
The team has also been supported by dedicated leadership and thoughtful coaching. Mr. Gage, a former management consultant and university basketball player, brings his leadership, knowledge and teaching experience to play in his conscientious coaching of the team. In his 7th year at Brentwood as a coach, teacher and houseparent, Mr Gage is both a thoughtful and considerate coach and an inspiring mentor. He has the same love of the sport that so motivates his team and is driven to help each player to achieve their own “best performance” says #13 Sean L.
With assistance on the court and in the gym from Brentwood alumnus and Assistant-Head Marius Felix, leadership also comes from within the team. Matt H, a Grade 12 Ellis boy from Salt Spring Island, is this year’s captain. According to his Mr. Gage, Matt is the “perfect story for the team”: a player who, by hard work and determination, has risen to the accomplishments he has achieved this term. Matt, who began his basketball career at Brentwood on the Junior B team in grade 9, has only improved during his time here and has worked hard for the team.
Matt has always been the first one to arrive at practice and cheers loudest in support of his teammates. A consistently positive and supportive player, Matt’s dedication to both the team and the sport is exemplary. Voted unanimously as captain, Matt continued to demonstrate the team’s strong spirit and tenacity for hard work, despite a calcified hematoma in his quadricep which prevented him from playing in the intense semi-final of the tournament.
The sum total of this effort and enthusiasm from every member of the team, coupled with the players’ love of the game and the dedication of the coaching staff have produced some of the best basketball that Brentwood has ever seen. And it has also produced a special group of friends. Based on the memories of their time together, these friendships will last far beyond the reach of the Brentwood Bubble.
-Vince Lombardi
From its first days at the newly reconstructed Brentwood campus in 1963 until today, generations of Brentonians have experience the joys of basketball at our school and this year, Brentwood's Senior Boys’ Basketball team had its best season ever, earning a Bronze medal at last month’s BC High School Basketball Tournament in Kamloops.
Led by determined coaches and an exemplary captain, the team developed a unique sense of camaraderie and friendship. United by their shared hours in practice, training and games, the team is linked by their genuine love for the sport. With only 15 players on the team, the exclusive group is its own community where all players are also friends and where every person is willing to help each other succeed.
Combined with tenacity and a constant desire to improve their skills, this year’s team has developed into champions due to their own effort. This “neat bunch of guys” as Coach Blake Gage earnestly describes them, has committed themselves to the sport and the team, giving their all in. This year’s team is a group of “best friends” willing to “play for each other”, according to Mr. Gage, who counts the team’s unprecedented successes as a “testament to the team’s hard work”. But hard work is easy among friends.
The team has also been supported by dedicated leadership and thoughtful coaching. Mr. Gage, a former management consultant and university basketball player, brings his leadership, knowledge and teaching experience to play in his conscientious coaching of the team. In his 7th year at Brentwood as a coach, teacher and houseparent, Mr Gage is both a thoughtful and considerate coach and an inspiring mentor. He has the same love of the sport that so motivates his team and is driven to help each player to achieve their own “best performance” says #13 Sean L.
With assistance on the court and in the gym from Brentwood alumnus and Assistant-Head Marius Felix, leadership also comes from within the team. Matt H, a Grade 12 Ellis boy from Salt Spring Island, is this year’s captain. According to his Mr. Gage, Matt is the “perfect story for the team”: a player who, by hard work and determination, has risen to the accomplishments he has achieved this term. Matt, who began his basketball career at Brentwood on the Junior B team in grade 9, has only improved during his time here and has worked hard for the team.
Matt has always been the first one to arrive at practice and cheers loudest in support of his teammates. A consistently positive and supportive player, Matt’s dedication to both the team and the sport is exemplary. Voted unanimously as captain, Matt continued to demonstrate the team’s strong spirit and tenacity for hard work, despite a calcified hematoma in his quadricep which prevented him from playing in the intense semi-final of the tournament.
The sum total of this effort and enthusiasm from every member of the team, coupled with the players’ love of the game and the dedication of the coaching staff have produced some of the best basketball that Brentwood has ever seen. And it has also produced a special group of friends. Based on the memories of their time together, these friendships will last far beyond the reach of the Brentwood Bubble.
75p
