On Saturday, February 26^th we hosted our second annual alumni basketball event. Our goal this year was to recognize the best women’s basketball program in the school’s history, the teams from 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, by presenting the players with their provincial championship rings from the Anderson-Bailly Tournaments. Unfortunately we hit a tough year logistically with several of the women from those great teams being as far away as Florida and Africa and simply unable to make it back. Nevertheless, we were able to present rings to former stars Lindi Campbell, Kara Campbell, Katherine Wright and, of course Coach Erik Van Dyke. We have rings for the rest of the members of those teams in the Advancement & Alumni Office and sincerely hope these players will have a chance to come by to pick them up personally.

As for the game, if you were a former basketball player at Stanstead you should like the following story. Unlike last year, this year we were able to field a complete alumni team with faculty members, Erik Van Dyke and Vince Jansen, rounding out the roster. Their opponents were a number of the players from the school bolstered by Mrs. Amy Wolfe, former outstanding woman’s player at the University of Prince Edward Island. The Alumni Team came out of the gate flat-footed (maybe a tad out of shape from their playing days?) in a very up tempo game being played by the school and before they knew it were trailing 18-7. Regaining some composure, the “old folks” led by Su-kai Cheng staged a bit of a rally and were down 22-13 at the half. In basketball the two halves of a game can be very different from each other and this was one of those games. Led by the continued fine play of Su-kai Cheng and some unexpected clutch shooting from the likes of Jeff “Havlicek” Supino and Kara “Hatchet” Campbell, the alums went on a run of 8 unanswered points in the 3^rd frame to close the gap to 33-29 at the end of the quarter. The 4^th quarter was all alumni and some clutch free-throw shooting from Mr. Van Dyke. They seemed to catch a second wind and outscored the school 19-9 in the final stanza, running away with a 48-42 victory as the final buzzer sounded. While 11 of the 12 alumni players scored in the game, top scorer for the alums was Su-kai Cheng with 18. Mrs. Amy Wolfe led all scorers on the school team with 7.

I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Advancement & Alumni Office to thank all of the alums who made it down to the school and to thank current players and faculty who gave up their time on a Saturday afternoon to help us out with the event.