Dan Stinson
Vancouver
Sun. Last Updated: Tuesday 19 December 2000
The Richmond Colts senior boys basketball team will tour Cuba early in the
new year. But the Jan. 1-15 trip involves much more than playing exhibition
games against teams at 'sports-only' high schools.
"The trip will be a cultural and political eye-opener for the boys,"
says veteran Colts coach Bill Disbrow. "We're going to learn as much as we
can about the country during our time there. The basketball games are going to
be very challenging, but that's not the only reason for our trip."
The Colts are also heading to Cuba with a sense of empathy. The United
States' controversial and long-standing economic embargo against Cuba continues
to this day, which means that many of the necessities of everyday life are in
chronically short supply on the Caribbean island. The Colts will donate
loose-leaf paper, pens, pencils and other school and basketball supplies to
Cuban students.
Anyone wishing to donate these and other items may contact Disbrow at
Richmond High at 668-6400.
The Colts' itinerary includes visits to Havana, Pinar Del Rio, Cienfuegos,
Trinidad and the popular tourist resort town of Varadero.
HOOP FOLLIES: Mother Nature was the big winner during the Victoria Christmas
Tournament for 32 senior girls and 16 junior girls basketball teams last Friday
and Saturday.
High winds across the Strait of Georgia cancelled several ferry sailings,
resulting in near chaos as Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley teams scrambled to
get to the capital city in time for their opening games.
Some Pitt Meadows Marauders players were in a van that boarded the wrong
ferry at the Tsawwassen terminal. Thinking they had boarded the
Tsawwassen-to-Swartz Bay sailing, the girls were actually on a ferry bound for
Nanaimo. They were forced to drive from Nanaimo to Victoria after docking at
Duke Point.
Argyle Pipers coach and North Vancouver resident Neil Wickson took the
closer Horseshoe Bay-to-Nanaimo ferry instead of the Tsawwassen sailing. But his
truck broke down just outside of Nanaimo. As luck would have it, a coach from
Montreal's McGill University was also en route to the tournament and offered
Wickson a ride.
In Victoria, the roof of a school gym sprung a leak, making the facility
unplayable. One of the coaches phoned the tournament's gym allocator and asked
if there was another court available.
"Sure," the beleaguered official said. "Drive a few blocks
and look for a huge open court next to a parking lot."
The outside temperature at the time was hovering around zero degrees and it
was pouring rain.
When the chaos finally subsided, the Maple Ridge Ramblers defeated the host
Mount Douglas Rams in the championship game.
BIG GAME: The No. 3-ranked Ramblers play the No. 8 Thomas Haney Thunder in a
senior girls basketball game Thursday, starting at 6:30 p.m. at Thomas Haney
Secondary. It's the first game of the season between the Fraser Valley League
North Zone arch-rivals. Key players are Ciana Gregorio and Kristy Haskell for
Maple Ridge and Thomas Haney's Bianca Salazar and Kim Howe. | 