NO. 1 ACWSALCTA 78 NO. 2 CEDARS CHRISTIAN 62
By GARY KINSTON (Special for Varsity Letters)
LANGLEY TOWNSHIP — LANGLEY – Never mind the 12 long hours it will take, it’s finally going to be a joyous trip home to Bella Coola this weekend for the Acwsalcta Thunder senior girls basketball team.
And, for their drum-pounding family members and raucous school mates who made the trip for the third consecutive year to the Langley Events Centre for the B.C. championships.
The tiny Nuxalk nation school became the first from Bella Coola, a remote central B.C. coastal town, to win a provincial championship, capturing the Single A title with a precision-like 78-58 triumph over the Cedars Christian Eagles from Prince George. Seeded No. 1, the Thunder, who had finished third in 2024 and second last year, beat the Eagles for the fourth time this season.
“It feels amazing, I’m very grateful,” said Grade 12 Skylene Andy, the powerful five-foot-five centre, who tallied 18 points. “I’m glad our whole school is out there to support us. The whole experience is unreal.”
Now, some of you faithful Varsity Letters readers might be wondering – wait a minute, wasn’t it the Sir Alexander Mackenzie Grizzlies who were runners-up last year and third-place finishers in 2024.
Yes, it was. But the native girls who were the nucleus of that team from the high school in the nearby hamlet of Hagensborg chose to move to the Acwsalcta school in Bella Coola itself for their Grade 12 year to integrate more culture learning with the standard academic programs.
Acwsalcta in the Nuxalk language stands for “A place of learning.”
With a roster of just eight, including five players who are on the court for most of the game, the Thunder have to play it close to the vest. They had two of those starters foul out early in the fourth quarter of last year’s close loss to Pacific Christian, losses that cost them any chance of a win.
History looked like it might repeat itself on Saturday when twin sisters Ayanna and Annika Parr, 5-foot-9 forwards who are headed to play at Prince George’s University of Northern B.C. next season, got into first half foul trouble. Ayanna did eventually foul out in the fourth quarter, but the Thunder had built a healthy lead by that point and were able to hang on.
“It means a lot (to finally win a title), especially with the support from our community and my family,” said Annika Parr. “We’re doing it for them, of course, we’re making history. And I want to inspire a younger generation.
“It’s a very surreal experience right now. I feel very blessed to be able to work hard to meet a goal of winning at provincials.”
For the Thunder, they’ve so often been defined by the high-scoring, ball-dominating Parr twins. But it was the undersized supporting cast of half-a-dozen players who came up big in the final, particularly 5-foot-5 Grade 12s Andy and Kashlyn Mack, particularly in the first half when the Parrs often found themselves met at the basket by two or three defenders with denial on their minds. Annilka went an uncharacteristic zero-for-eight in the half while picking up three fouls.
The Thunder led by just seven at the break, but pulled ahead 63-47 in the third quarter as Annika and Ayanna started to find the range. Ayanna finished strong with 19 points, nine rebounds and six steals, while Annika chipped in with 14 points and six boards.
Mack, who drained a couple of three-pointers, made her biggest mark by driving relentlessly to the basket. She finished with a game-high 22 points. Andy had 18 points, while connecting on two of her three attempts from behind the arc.
“That’s a good team,” said Cedars Christian head coach Jordan Johnson. “We tried to take away (the Parr twins), and, guess what, the supporting cast went right to work on us and they were clicking from all angles.”
The other factor, said Johnson, was the fact the Thunder had played high-pressure games for three straight years.. The Eagles had one Grade 12 – leading scorer Cadence Hooft with 19 points – and one Grade 11. The rest of the roster was made up of Grade 10s.
“You can’t replace experience,” said Johnson. “Sometimes you get down in these big games and you think you have to hurry up and start playing differently to get back in there and you end up just going backwards. It’s a learning lesson for us.”
Mack, who played with the group as a Grade 10, spent last season playing high school ball in Washington state on the Lummi Nation reservation.
“I knew we’d have a big chance of winning with me coming back,” said Mack, who added that she was also drawn back by the opportunity to embrace her culture and language by joining her former teammates at the Acwsalcta school.
Now that school embrace its hoops culture by hanging a B.C. championship banner in its gymnasium.
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