Four months after winning gold with the B.C. under-16 provincial basketball team, Justin McChesney has survived the first round of tryouts after attending the U17 Provincial Team SuperCamp last weekend in Langley.
The new age division, the oldest that Basketball BC overlooks, attracts a large number of scouts every year at the national championships in the summer from Canada and the U.S.
This year, the under-17s were held in Edmonton in July and McChesney was in attendance as a member of the championship B.C. team who downed Manitoba in the tourney final.
Team Manitoba claimed the under-17 title, while B.C. took sixth-place.
In years prior, Basketball BC held the tryouts in April but recently moved them to November in order for the athletes to have more time to develop.
“A pool of athletes will be identified on that weekend and they will be invited to take part in additional training pool/evaluation sessions along with provincially targeted/identified athletes during the 2014 Christmas break,” explained the Basketball BC website.
“Earlier team selection will also allow for enhanced team development and preparation time before taking part in Spring NCAA sanctioned events and tournaments,” the site continued.
Up next for the Rupertite will be the Basketball BC training and selection sessions at the end of the year.