Cascades climb to a new peak
Team has recovered from the low of 2- 16 in 2009- 10 season
Mention to Al Tuchscherer the trials and tribulations of graduating a university basketball program to the Canada West level, and you’ll get a laugh fraught with varying emotions.
The nine- year head coach of the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades women’s basketball team has experienced a myriad of peaks and valleys — mostly valleys — since the program moved up from the former British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association, now the PACWEST, to Canadian Interuniversity Sport and Canada West in the fall of 2006.
The Cascades have climbed to their highest peak since 2006. They finished the season with a 12- 6 record, a program best, and will host a Canada West opening round best- of- three playoff series for the first time in their CIS tenure, beginning Thursday ( 6 p. m.) against the University of Calgary Dinos.
However, it wasn’t long ago, the 2009- 10 season to be exact, Tuchscherer and his Cascades plummeted to the valley floor in an unforgiving manner with a 2- 16 record, which followed on the heels of a 4- 19 season.
Since the fall of 2006, UFV’S record in Canada West is 50- 79, with four playoff appearances, two of which ended swiftly with the Cascades getting swept in a best two- out- of- three opening round series.
Not exactly fruitful days for Tuchscherer, who took over as head coach in 2002 when the Cascades were dominating the PACWEST and known still as the University College of the Fraser Valley. From 2002 to 2006, Tuchscherer led the Cascades to back- to- back PACWEST titles and four straight Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championship appearances.
“It’s been pretty hard. I’m not going to lie to you. We struggled after our first couple of years to get the players in here that we wanted, and it was a reflection on the court,” said Tuchscherer. “I think you have to have faith in hard work and do the best job you possibly can and wherever the chips fall, they fall.”
The sky, not chips, seemed to fall during that 2009- 10 season. But in hindsight, it may have been the best thing that happened to the Cascades.
They started eight rookies, all of them thrown into the deep end and forced to sink or swim with CIS titans Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia.
Now five of them — all from the Fraser Valley, including three from Chilliwack, and one each from Abbotsford and Mission — are in their third year at UFV and show promise of an even brighter future ahead.
“At the start, we were really frustrated. But as the season went on, it wasn’t so much about winning games,” said third- year guard Aieisha Luyken, who was one of those eight rookies. “It was about having those lessons, those are the little goals that we would set to help get through the season. After that season, everyone came in together and we all decided that we didn’t want to have another season like that again.”
Those difficult days of learning the hard way now seem so far behind them, with the Cascades in search of their second consecutive berth in the Canada West final four.
The Dinos stand in the way of that feat, and likely won’t be in a sentimental, giving mood.
They’re coming off an impressive 14- 6 season, and are ranked 10th in CIS, one spot back of the Cascades.
The two teams have met once already this season. The Cascades won, on home court, 88- 71. Luyken and teammate Tessa Klassen, a fifth- year guard originally from Winnipeg, led all players in scoring that night with 26 points each.
“Calgary is definitely a good team and we played them not too long ago, so it’s still fresh in our mind what they’re all about,” said Klassen.
“I think we’re all expecting them to come out with a lot of energy. It should be a good, tough weekend. We definitely play better at home. It’s nice to host our first ever playoff since UFV has joined the CIS.”
UBC basketball
The UBC Thunderbirds women’s basketball team, ranked fourth in CIS according to the latest national polls released on Feb. 14, will host the University of Alberta Pandas in the first round of Canada West playoffs.
The Thunderbirds finished the regular season with 11 wins in their last 12 games and a 15- 3 record, while Alberta, based out of Edmonton, went 13- 7 despite losing four of their last six games. The best- of- three series begins Thursday.