All players travelling to Kelowna should have a copy of our "Kelowna Trip - Itinerary and Information for Parents and Players".  I made copies for parents too.  If you did not get one, please come and see me at W.L.McLeod and get it tomorrow.  There is a form in the pamphlet to sign.  I want you to bring it with you on the trip, please.

Week of Jan.30-Feb.3
Practice Monday morning 7 AM
Game after school vs. College Heights L 41-23
No game Tuesday, sorry! - LDSS has folded!

Immaculata Mustangs
Sweet 16 Tournament
Depart for Kelowna - 5 AM Wed morning
Thursday - game 1 - 3:45 P.M.
@Immaculata vs. Similkameen
Friday - game 2 -  8:15 A.M. (L) or  11:15 A.M. (W) @HCS

Saturday - final game is at 3:45 PM @Immaculata
Return trip:  Leave Kelowna -5AM  Arrive Vanderhoof -5PM  We'll have the girls call ahead!

Kelly Road Jr. Girls Tournament - Jan.27-28

2nd Place! All-stars - defensive to Brivee Mueller, Offensive star went to Katie Friesen! Grats on a good weekend girls!

Teigan with broken Nose - looking at surgery on Monday, Meghan's foot bothering again by late Saturday, Maraya out last game with bruised thigh.

Practice times this week:

• Monday 7 AM
• After school - game CHSS @NVSS

***Please email me or bring me your Care Card Number if you are going to Kelowna.

Week of Jan.23-28

Practice times for this week and next
Thursday 5 PM
Friday 7 AM
Mon 7 AM
Monday afternoon - either game or practice at 5 PM

Kelly Road Tournament information
We depart NVSS at 3 PM Friday
The following will play on Friday:
Ameera   Maraya   Nicole    Spring
Katie       Teigan    Rryzel    Brivee
Meghan   Sky        Shelby    Cierra
Hannah   Anika     Dara       Taylor

• Players who cannot play should let me know.
• Players who have not paid their team fees will not play tournaments.  You are still welcome to play in Omineca games.

Week of Jan.16-20  

Game Schedule - There are 2 games this week.  The Cougars are roaming!  Tune in soon for more on BIG CAT WEEK!  Raooorrrrr!

Games and Practices this week CANCELLED DUE TO COLD WEATHER

Remember - on Friday we break from sports for Exam Week.  (We will resume game play on Jan.27th at the Kelly Road tournament).

The NVSS Jr Girls Home Tournament was held this weekend, Jan.13-14. On Friday the 13th, we played D.P.Todd, winning 60-21.  Believe it or not, 18 girls participated in this game, and we enjoyed some nicely balanced scoring.  The game was only marred by a twisted ankle suffered by Cierra in the last 2 minutes of the game.  Game stand-outs were Hannah with 9 points, Cierra dropped in 7, and Shelby, Katie, and Meghan scored 6 each!

On Saturday morning, we played Northside, winning 30-28 in a hard-fought victory!  In game 2, Cierra led the team with 7 points, Maraya potted 6 points, while Hannah and Teigan netted 4 each.  The second game was very exciting and both teams showed excellent sportsmanship.  We worked very hard for a chance to play in the Tournament final!
The Championship game was between NVSS and Columneetza (our Williams Lake rivals).  We won pulling away, and the final score was 28-20.  Columneetza defeated PGSS and Cedars Christian to get to the finals.  Having lost to Columneetza last week by 5 points, we knew we were going to have to work hard!  It turned out to be super intense with never a dull moment from start to finish!
Teigan and Maraya led with 6 points each, and Hannah got 5.  The game was exciting with some great passing and moments of awesome full-court speed. Sky, Brivee, and Cierra never stopped running, and were instrumental in taking it to Columneetza.

Tournament Highlights for NVSS
During the two days of our tournament, there were many highlights.  Offensively, Haley and Hannah's long court passes made our full-court offense more mobile and added some speed to our game. Anika dropped some nice shots.  Brivee and Sky had some blow-by lay-ups!  On the 3 games, Hannah had 18 points, Cierra 15, Maraya 14, Teigan 12, Shelby 10, Meghan 8, and several other players had 6 points.
The true key to success in basketball is Defence, however!  I believe we are getting better at this part of the game.  Over 3 games, we held our opposition to 21, 28, and 20 points - not too bad at all!  On the boards, we had some real leadership from Teigan, Shelby, Katie, and even Meghan, although her foot was bothering her again this weekend. Even Taylor was getting into the act!  The girls gathered in rebounds, blocked out, and prevented other teams' big girls from scoring against us. Our team played man-to-man defence, zone defence, worked the press, pulled some traps, and played aggressively from start to finish.  There was very little standing around watching by the players - there are too many girls waiting to get on the floor for that to happen!  :)

Tournament Results
  1. NVSS (W) vs. DPTodd  60-21
  2. Northside (W) vs. Duchess B  32-28 
  3. Columneetza (W) vs. PGSS   37-31
  4. Cedars Christian (W) vs. Correlieu  25-15
  5. Duchess B (W) vs. DPTodd  75-13
  6. Correlieu (W) vs. PGSS  47-32
  7. NVSS (W) vs. Northside  30-28
  8. Columneetza (W) vs. Cedars Christian  30-25
  9. PGSS (W) vs. DPTodd  49-42
10. Duchess B (W) vs. Correlieu  Forfeit (2 player injuries)
11. Northside (W) vs. Cedars Christian  28-26
12.  NVSS (W) vs. Columneetza  28-20

Tournament Summary
There were 4 major injuries, including 2 turned ankles, a hyper-extended knee, and a broken nose.  (Correlieu comes to games ready to play hard - 3 of the major injuries happened during Correlieu games).  If a blow-out is a win by 25 points or more, then there were 2 in this tournament.  Both were against DPTodd who have not won a game this year, despite a good attitude and effort by their players. Northside competed very hard, winning game 1by 4, losing game 2 by 2, and winning game 3 by 2 points - exciting and challenging games all!

Skills Competition
Best Shooter - Ciara Verduzco (NVSS);  Best Ball-Handler - Annie Blois (Col)

Tournament Awards
All Stars:  Hannah Marks (NVSS); Kaylee Billyboy (Col); Amanda Schultz (NS); Nikeisha Clayton (DPTodd); Jennifer Stern (PGSS); Cassia Gauthier (Corr); Michel Nikkel (Cedars);  (DPSS) Samantha Childs
Top Individual Awards: MVP - Teigan Miller-Gauthier (NVSS); Best Defensive - Annie Blois (Col)
Team Awards: 1st - NVSS; 2nd - Columneetza; Most Sportsmanlike - Duchess Park B

We played Northside on Tuesday.  A good-sized crowd was present to cheer on the two schools.  NVSS girls were victorious, as were the Northside boys.

Wednesday this week the grade 8 teams play so no Jr Girls practice!

Thursday, the girls will play Fort St. James after school.  We need some help with the score table, please!

Friday, we play DP Todd at 3:30 PM in the first game of our Home Tournament. Girls are expected to be available to help with the tournament this weekend.  I will have a sign-up sheet to get table officials.  We will need help with the scoresheet, the clock, and the 30-second clock for each of the 12 games.  If you have friends who can help on the Table, please let me know.

PGSS Tournament - 

Results
Fri 7 Pm  vs. Cedars Christian   23-34
Sat 10:30 vs. Columneetza          39-44
Sat 3 PM  vs. DPTodd                  71-23


We missed Teigan and Maraya this weekend, but managed to keep all our games close.  I think everyone would agree that our PGSS tournament all-star was Cierra.  With 8, 15, and 22 points, Cierra averaged 15 points a game for the weekend.  Shelby and Katie worked very hard on defence and helped shut down the big centre for Cedars after the first quarter.  Anika had a season high 12 points and Sky had one of her best games of the season in our final game against DPTodd.  

Hello all!
We have made a great start in the new year with 2 wins over Northside (34-25) and Fraser Lake (45-18).   In a true measure of team play, everyone scored in the FLESS game - awesome!
**************
A word about effort and attitude now....
Over the next month, we have a lot of games coming up.  It is important that everyone attend all practices from here on out.  If you are missing practices, you are missing out on basketball skill development and concepts!  The result is that your absences may prevent you from being a positive contributor to the team! 

We have all had a number of reasons for absences from practice and game play.  Every girl on our team has missed at least one while some girls have missed over half the practices!  How can that be a good thing for the team?  It is true that absences have in general been for good cause and most are excused absences, but please be aware that in upcoming tournaments, I will be playing those girls who are attending practice regularly. They are going to be the ones familiar with our offensive and defensive strategies.  We have been working on zone defence, a zone offence has been introduced, we are trying to work on a press and a press break, and so on!  I will not ask girls with excused absences to quit the team but they may have reduced playing time as a result of their missed practice times.

We have a great season before us!  Make a commitment to be there, be part of things, to practice hard and make a serious effort on behalf of yourself and your team! 

Welcome back!  Hope you had a great Christmas vacation!

Our first game is Tuesday in Fraser Lake - This is an Omineca game so all grade 9s will play!
We practice Wednesday after school and Thursday at 5 PM.
On Thursday, I will be selecting 12 players to play at the PGSS tournament this weekend. 

NVSS plays Cedars Christian on Friday night, and either College Heights or Columneetza in round 2 on Saturday.  We travel to PG with the Senior Boys.  We will leave NVSS at 4:30 PM on Friday afternoon.
The Senior Boys play at 6:30 at D.P. Todd.  We play at PGSS at 7 PM.

A commitment to attend all practices, to work hard, to learn our offence and defence, is now going to become very important!  Give your best efforts at practices!  We have a great month of basketball ahead of us in January!