A coach with Quesnel’s U14 C girls team is proud of her players after the team placed fourth at provincials in Abbotsford.
COVID-19 cut the team’s practice time, and it was initially unclear if the provincials held July 9, 10, and 11 would take place until late this spring.
“Because of COVID last year these girls hadn’t played U14, so it was everybody’s first experience at provincials, including my husband [Dave] and me as coaches,” Krystle Beaudry said.
Local sponsorship helped support the team to attend and cover meal and snack costs, which came in handy when the 13 girls played three back-to-back-to-back games on Sunday, July 11.
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The team defeated Kelowna and Langford before losing to Sooke, the eventual gold medal winners.
Beaudry said placing fourth place in a competitive playing field was a good outcome.
Restrictions due to the novel coronavirus meant the players could not divide up into teams for practice until the beginning of June.
“We only really had three weeks to prepare,” Beaudry said.
“I was very proud of the girls and their commitment in such a short time, and their grit that they put in to do as well as we did, and just their teamwork.”
While no one at the provincials seemed to have heard of the team’s hometown, Quesnel, Beaudry said they had shown them where they were from where they play good ball.
It was also great she said to have some sense of normalcy as everyone, including spectators, could come together without face masks.
“It was really nice for the kids just to be able to do what they love in a normal setting…It just felt normal, so it was really exciting to see.”
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