In a word: awesome.
That was how Colin Cunningham, Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School athletic director and basketball coach, described the weekend visit of the UVic Vikes' men's basketball team to his school
"They practised twice when they were here, once on Friday night and again on Saturday morning. Lots of Isfeld kids showed up to watch practice," said Cunningham of the Vikes' second visit to Isfeld in as many years.
"They had dinner Saturday night at Ryan's parents (Hugh and Kathy). Approximately 200 community members showed up for the intersquad game on Saturday night with lots of the Isfeld players volunteering to set up, scorekeep and clean up."
Cunningham said UVic fifth-year captain Ryan MacKinnon said a few nice words to the community members present and introduced all of his teammates. "The crowd was impressed by the new-look Vikes who are much stronger and faster than last year," Cunningham said. " The players played extremely hard for a full hour, re-setting the score and shuffling lineups after 15-minute quarters."
G.P Vanier alumnus Phil Ohl is assistant coaching for the Vikes this year as his son Dominic is in his first year with the team, Cunningham noted. "Head coach Craig Beaucamp says he loves bring his team up to the Valley, as they always feel welcome. Isfeld basketball hopes to continue this tradition despite local Highland grad Ryan MacKinnon graduating this year.
"Special thanks to Isfeld Ice basketball coach Ross Macdonald who did all of the background work and arranging the details for the team to come up. Hopefully the Valley basketball community will support Vikes basketball as it should be an exciting year for them," Cunningham said of the CIS squad.