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Pacers roll to fourth straight Brasnett/Lawrence Cup

Delta content spending another season at tier two level of high school girls basketball

The Delta Pacers rolled to another Brasnett/Lawrence Cup on Wednesday night and have found their happy place in B.C. senior girls basketball as well.

The Ladner school cruised to a 50-14 victory over the South Delta Sun Devils for their fourth straight triumph in the annual cross-town rivalry game. 

The Pacers will now embark on their league schedule where they are content playing at the tier two level again this season. 

DSS has had some good female multi-sport athletes come through the school in recent years, but unfortunately it takes much more to be competitive in tier one.

No one knows that better than Kerrie Trotman. 

The longtime DSS teacher and volunteer basketball coach says trying to compete at the top level of girls high school basketball has never been a greater challenge.

A couple of years ago she had an excellent group that included Delta Heat 2001 softball standouts Olivia Malesku and Hanna Hansen. The Pacers even made an appearance in the BC Junior rankings in their Grade 10 season.

Trotman decided to take them to tier one in Grade 11 and the team went winless in league play.

A few years prior it was another solid group, that included her daughter Megan, that had similar luck in tier one.

“Before it used to be one or two players playing club and now it’s the whole team. They are starting a lot earlier too,” said Trotman. 

She added convincing student athletes in Grade 8 to make basketball their number one and perhaps only sport can be a tough sell, so instead, Trotman would rather focus on welcoming multi-sport athletes to enjoy the high school basketball experience.

“That would be pretty tough to do here at DSS. You need a parent behind you as well who is supporting basketball at a younger age. At least we now have (the school district) basketball academy," she said. “This team has some good athletes but Abby (Wigglesworth) is on her own as far as dedicating herself only to basketball. She has the support of the multi-sport athletes but you are going to need more than that for tier one. You need five very skilled (club) players and probably a couple coming off the bench as well.

“I’m happy where we are and this a great group of girls to be working with.”

It was Wigglesworth who led the Pacers in scoring with 20 points. Emma Webster added 13 and Avielle Wellington eight. Kimmy Davidson had six for South Delta.