WolfPack » Men’s Basketball

NCAA DIV 1 SCHOOL TO PLAY BASKETBALL IN KAMLOOPS

lread — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:25:05 +0000

Greg Stewart (A. Snucins photo)

For the first time in its history, Thompson Rivers University will be hosting a NCAA Division I basketball team. The WolfPack men’s basketball team will be entertaining the University of San Diego Toreros in an exhibition game Monday August 9 th. Tip off will be 6 pm at the Tournament Capital Center.

“San Diego approached me when I was coaching at Simon (Fraser University) “ said WolfPack head coach Scott Clark. “I met San Diego assistant coach Mike Burns when he was with Central Washington. When SFU decided not to play them, I invited them here.”

Clark is having the Toreros come to the BC Interior for two reasons. “ First, I want to raise the profile of the sport of basketball. Secondly, it’ll be a good day of basketball for our guys. You can’t get better competition that what San Diego will provide.”

San Diego went 12 and 21 overall (league, tourney and playoffs) in 2009-10. Bill Grier is their head coach and enters his fourth season on the bench of the Toreros, who will also play the University of the Fraser Valley and UBC on their British Columbia excursion.

The WolfPack plan to have their returning veterans along with some of their new recruits in the line up for the exhibition encounter. “We’ll have a couple of practices before we hit the floor,” stated Clark.

Clark hopes that the visit by San Diego will be the first of many from top American and Canadian university basketball programs to the Interior. “ It would be great to make a game like this an annual affair,” he adds.

“I hope we’ll be able to get a lot of people out to enjoy the game.”

Tickets for the August 9 th exhibition game will be $5.00 across the board and available at the door.

MBB SIGN GUARD FROM GEORGIA

lread — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:57:01 +0000

Justin Riggins

The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s basketball team has had American players on its roster before. But never in their five year history in the CIS have they had one from Georgia.

That’ll change in 2010-11 as head coach Scott Clark officially announced the signing of 21 year old guard Justin Riggins of Atlanta. Riggins is a 6’4” guard who redshirted last season with the Columbia College Claim Jumpers of Sonora California.

“It is a new scene for me.” says Riggins who hadn’t been to BC before his visit to Kamloops earlier this month. “ I’ll have to get used to the metric system and the weather.”

Riggins came to Kamloops by way of new Simon Fraser University head coach James Blake. Blake, a Canadian, was the associate head coach with Columbia College last season. “He (Blake) asked me if I were interested in coming to a school in Canada,” Riggins explains. Blake got in touch with the man he took over from at SFU, current WolfPack head coach Scott Clark and the rest is history.

Clark feels that Riggins will fit into the system he is developing for the WolfPack. “He is an athlete with a lot of flexibility. He can shoot, bounce it a bit, score from the perimeter and with his back to the basket and from the break. We are looking for these type of ‘multi faceted’ individuals . He is a player.”

Riggins plans to take courses which would put him in line for a business degree.

“I’m a shooter,” he said when assessing his strengths. “ I love to shoot the ball. I need to get bigger and stronger (185 pounds).”

Riggins feels that adjusting to the FIBA rules that the CIS play will take a bit to get used to. “ Basketball is basketball. I’m sure I’ll do fine.”

Clark has had experience with American players switching to the FIBA game. “ I think he’ll have to adjust his shot selection. When you play with a 35 second shot clock you can be more selective in the shots you take. When you play 24 seconds: if it is an open shot you have to take it. The added time will contribute to moving the ball around to get a better shot.”

Riggins plans to take courses which would put him in line for a business degree.

On why he chose TRU and Canada. “ I look at this as a great opportunity. I don’t know too many people who say they went to school in Canada. I look at this as a good chance to get a great education and meet good people.”

Clark is happy that Riggins has decided to join the WolfPack. “ I think recruiting for this year is done. Our roster is pretty set. If a good player came in at the last minute-we would look at adding him. At this point I would say the roster is pretty well finalized. Now we can concentrate on developing. We need to get the guys stronger, faster and more skilled. That’ll continue through the month of September.”

The WolfPack will open their Canada West season Friday October 22^nd in Brandon. Their first home game is October 29 th at the Tournament Capital Center against the University of Alberta Golden Bears.

DOUBLE DRIBBLES: Riggins says his hero in the NBA is L.A. Lakers star Kobe Bryant. “ I’d love to be a player like him. But I have a long, long way to go,” he laughs. “ Maybe one day if I work really hard.”

He graduated from Rockdale County High School in Georgia in 2007.

Riggins joins Chaz Kok (forward, Lynden Wash), Rob Dhillon (guard, White Rock, BC), Brett Rouault (forward, Vernon, BC), Kevin Pribilsky (forward, Victoria, BC) and Brett Parker (guard, Langley, BC) as new faces with TRU this coming season

Greg Stewart and Sitting Volleyball team featured in Vancouver Sun

lread — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:48:55 +0000

Greg Stewart

By Gary Kingston, Vancouver SunJune 28, 2010

VANCOUVER — At seven-foot-two, with a deep baritone voice, Greg Stewart is a presence just about anywhere he goes.

But on this day, in a gym in Surrey, B.C., he stands out — figuratively and certainly literally as he lumbers after wayward volleyballs — in a gigantic way.

Prosthetic limbs and athletic bags are strewn around the perimeter of the gym. Young men and women, most missing all or part of a leg, are sliding across the floor on their behinds, stretching for a dig or setting up a teammate for a spike of the ball over a low-slung net.

The game is sitting volleyball, an official Paralympic sport since 2004. And when Stewart, who qualifies as a result of being born with only half a left arm, folds himself like a giraffe down to the floor, he becomes Canada’s most intimidating weapon.

“If I see fear in somebody’s eyes, I’m going to go right at them,” he says, a sly grin crossing his face at the thought of pulverizing the ball at a defenceless opponent sitting just a metre or two away.

“It goes back to his angle, the angle of attack,” says head coach Ian Halliday. “There’s not too many people out there that have a torso and a hand reach that long. And it’s not like (able-bodied) volleyball where a shorter guy can be evened out by a big jump.”

The country’s men’s and women’s teams were at Surrey last weekend for a final camp before the 2010 world championships in Edmund, Okla., July 10-19. It is the first worlds for both as Canada was slower to switch focus when standing volleyball for athletes with a disability was dropped after the 2000 Paralympics — the Canadian men won silver — and replaced by the sitting game.

A three-time world champion in standing volleyball, Canada did not qualify a team of either gender at Athens in 2004 or Beijing in 2008.

Stewart, a native of Kamloops, B.C., is actually a two-sport star. In able-bodied basketball, he was the CIS Canada West defensive player of the year last season as a prosthetic arm-wearing junior centre for Thompson Rivers University. He hopes to play professionally overseas after school.

Sitting volleyball, he says, is a “fun” diversion.

Stewart, the lone B.C. athlete on the nine-member team headed to Oklahoma, began playing with the standing volleyball team in 2002 “and it gave me the opportunity to travel around the world.”

The International Paralympic Committee replaced the standing game with sitting volleyball because it felt the latter discipline was a better representative of what athletes with a disability can do. Rules are very similar to the able-bodied game, except that the court is more badminton-sized at 10 metres by six metres with a net that is 1.15 metres high for men and 1.05 metres for women.

It makes for an extremely quick, tactical game in which speed, control and reaction time are essential.

Front row players are also allowed to block the service of an opponent. The six athletes per side must keep at least one butt cheek or hip in contact with the floor at all times.

Stewart’s biggest challenge is quick movement of his bulk. With a prosthetic arm and hand on his left side, he simply doesn’t have the power that the two-armed, single-leg amputees have to propel their bodies.

“And it’s tiring for my upper body. Having the one arm, it’s tough to screw yourself around kind of using one and a half.”

He’s broken two prosthetic hands already.

“Just from moving the weight of myself on the floor. The last one looked like somebody bit if off. It was kind of weird looking.”

But his length, particularly when spiking balls down, is terrifying to opponents.

“We practise a lot with Team USA and last time we played them, their coach sat in a chair (in warm-up) and hit the ball at them,” said Stewart. “He’s hitting from four feet above the net, trying to do what I’ve been doing so they can learn to block me. There’s definitely an intimidation factor.

“But (we’ve learned) China has a big guy, similar size to me. Maybe I’ll be the intimidated guy on the other side.”

Canada is in a pool with China, the U.S., Libya and reigning Paralympic champions Bosnia-Herzegovina at Oklahoma. There are 23 countries represented in the men’s competition and only the top three will qualify for London 2012.

“We have a tough pool, with Bosnia being the top team in the world,” says Stewart. “But let’s give them a run for their money. Let’s be the nobodies walking in and becoming somebody.”

AT THE NET: There are three players from B.C. on the women’s team, Tanja Hodzic of Vancouver and Danielle Ellis and Jordan Funnel, both of White Rock.

gkingston@vancouversun.com

WOLFPACK MENS BASKETBALL TO RUN HIGH PERFORMANCE CAMP IN JULY

lread — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:18:01 +0000

Scott Clark

For the second year in a row, the head coach of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s basketball program will be coordinating a high performance camp. Newly signed head coach Scott Clark along with new signee Chas Kok will be running a week long camp July 26-30^th. The Camp will be running in conjunction with the Platinum Realty/TRU Sports Camp. Interim coach Thom Gillespie helped with that same camp in 2009.

“It’ll be a full day camp,” says Clark. “ The goal is to teach the fundamentals. That is what its going to take for people to be successful in the sports. It’ll be both individual and one and two man skills which will help make the young players successful.”

Each camper will not only be given expert instruction (Kok is a 2^nd team Canada West All-Star from 2009-10), but they will also be given a manual of drills that they can take away with them to work on in preparation for their upcoming school season.

“They are going to get better by going to the camp,” Clark adds “But with what they take away, they’ll be able to improve themselves before their season begins.”

Clark says off season basketball camps are important for young players. “Like anything in life, once you learn the fundamentals of something, it makes the experience more rewarding. That is what we hope to do at this camp. We’ll teach the game from the ground up. It sounds basic but what we will teach the youngsters is the same thing that we will stress with our players at TRU. When a kid comes to camp here: they will learn activities that will occur with our own players. The complexity of the drills will be designed so young players can pick them up without any difficulty.”

Clark ran a ‘high performance’ camp when he was with Simon Fraser University. A number of his campers wound up going onto playing the sport at the high school and even university level.

“One of my former students, Aaron Christensen was not only a “AAA” MVP but also a Canada West All-star,” Clark recounts. “ I remember him in grade seven, eight and nine attending our camps.”

The camp, which will be for boys in grades 7-12, will run from 8 am to 4 pm. The cost is $ 166.00. Interested players can register by calling Duncan Olthuis at (250) 377-6116 or log onto www.tru.ca/sport camps.

Rouault smart choice for Pack

lread — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:19:35 +0000

Brett Rouault (Wilson Wong photo)

By Kevin Mitchell

Vernon Morning Star (June 17, 2010)

Giant wingspan. Studies the game like he’s doing a thesis. Scores and rebounds in clutch situations.

Brett Rouault brings the whole package and a little more to the basketball court. The Thompson Rivers University (TRU) WolfPack will welcome his hoop show next year.

The 6-foot-4 forward, who guided the Fulton Maroons to the bronze medal at the B.C. Senior AA Boys Basketball Championships in Kamloops last March, follows Brett Parker of Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators as a major high school recruit for TRU (3-15 last year).

“I’m very excited to be part of a CIS program and to have the opportunity to improve as an athlete as well as student,” said Rouault, who will enter the Bachelor of Science program. “Hopefully, I can play for them right away.”

Rouault played just one season for Fulton after his family moved from Edmonton, where he starred for the Jasper Place Rebels and Team Alberta. Fulton head coach Dale Olson loved what he got from the 17-year-old, who led the Maroons with 22.5 points and seven rebounds a game.

“He’s got good athleticism and his basketball IQ is huge,” said Olson. “He’s six-four, but he plays six-six, six-seven because he deflects passes on defence all the time. His hands are always moving. He’s a player and he’s made for the CIS.”

Rouault drained the first 17 points in his school’s semifinal game at the provincials and made the tournament all-star team, with TRU officials watching.

“He scored some big points when I scouted him at the 2010 B.C. AA High School Championships,” said WolfPack head coach Scott Clark. “He is an outstanding individual. Not only is he athletic but an ‘A’ student. He is the type of person we want to attract in our efforts to build a successful program.”

The 190-pound Rouault becomes the third Maroon to join the WolfPack: following in the footsteps of Travis Beck (2009-10) and Charles Barton (2008-09).

“I am a strong shooter, who has had no problems with taking the ball inside,” Rouault said about his play. “I believe if that I work hard enough, I can give almost everyone problems with my defensive play.”

Rouault is excited about playing for new WolfPack coach Clark, who coached the SFU Clansmen for 15 years, making the playoffs 10 times.

“It’s exciting to play for a coach who has had so much success in the CIS already. I am looking forward to learning from him and improving my game.”

Added Clark: “He has nothing but upside. He scores from a variety of different areas. Once he matures physically, he should be an integral part of our future. First though, he’ll need to learn our system.”

Rouault, who turns 18 Aug. 27, was also looking at both Alberta and UBC-O.

“TRU is close to my family and they showed the most interest in me as a player. And I love the almost brand new facilities.”

Olson expects Rouault to succeed in both hoops and life.

“He’s extremely smart. He wants to be a doctor so he’ll get in five years there and then go to med school. I think he’s going to have a good CIS career.”

Rouault, an NBA Lakers fan, will spend the summer training and working for the family business (Lakeside Docks & Lifts).