Two young bucket getters from Vernon will be upping their competition this summer at a national basketball championship.
Adie Janke and Chloe Collins have been named to the U17 Team B.C. roster.
The team represents the best female basketball players in the province, under the age of 17.
Both Collins and Janke are currently in Grade 10 at Vernon Secondary School, and, at just 15 years old are younger than the vast majority of players on the roster.
“I coached the under 15 team last summer, so Adie and Chloe both tried out for that and were both on the radar but didn’t make it,” said U17 head coach Randy Nohr, who coaches numerous club teams in the Lower Mainland. “This year, Adie was a part of the junior academy so she was an automatic invite while Chloe went to tryouts and then they both went through two rounds of tryouts and made it.”
According to Nohr, 18 players are on the provincial team, but just 12 will make the flight to St. John’s Newfoundland, where the 11-team championship takes place, August 5 to 10.
“We have already had one training weekend and we have three more left, along with two events, in Victoria and Oregon,” said Nohr.
The training takes place in the Lower Mainland, on May 4, 5, 25 and 26, before the tournament in Victoria from June 14 to 16.
Then, the long tryout and practices continue with a final training weekend, June 22 and 23 and the Oregon End of Trail Shootout tournament from June 28 to July 1.
Collins impressed this year during the basketball season, coming back from a knee injury that sidelined her for most of the 2022-23 campaign. She dropped 35 points in a December home tournament game, drilling seven threes.
Janke, “improved a lot throughout the year, as her high school coach did a good job of preparing her,” Nohr added.
Official 12-person rosters are released prior to the National Championship training camp on July 23.
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