The Hub's Top 10 Teams: #10-6
Who was the best team in BC this past season?
It’s a difficult question to answer. With four different tiers with various tournaments and solid teams in each one, how do you decide who was the best of them all? You could just go with the provincial champions, but that would ignore all the games beforehand and place too much emphasis on such a small sample size. You could base it on zone tournament and various other ones throughout the season, but that would discredit winning games when it matters the most at the end.
We at BC Sports Hub decided to bear that burden and take this challenge on, and came up with a top 10 list of the best teams in the province regardless of tier and zone. Teams 10 through 6 will be released all at once, and we’ll be releasing teams 5 through 1 as individual articles later on.
#10 — Belmont Bulldogs
Belmont’s run at the provincial tournament may have gotten the majority of the headlines, but they had a pretty strong season beforehand as well. They finished second on the Island to eventual top seed Oak Bay, and played close games against 4A powerhouses Vancouver College and Tamanawis. They are definitely a program to watch out for in the future.
#9 — Byrne Creek Bulldogs
A second straight Lower Mainland championship and a second place finish at provincials — overall a very solid season for the Bulldogs. And with a solid group of returning players which include Bithow Wan, they should be one of the favourites to repeat at Lower Mainlands and win it all come March.
#8 — Walnut Grove Gators
The defending 4A champs couldn’t repeat this season, but were still one of the best teams in BC. They finished fifth in a tough Fraser Valley Zone, and were ranked fifth in 4A as late as February. Unfortunately, their seventh place finish at provincials moved them a bit down our rankings.
#7 — South Kamloops Titans
South Kamloops finally exercised their demons from last year’s final and won it all in 2018. Not only did they win it, but their girls team did as well — you don’t see that too often. They also finished seventh at the 2018 Legal Beagle.
#6 — Vancouver College Fighting Irish
A fifth place finish at provincials and 4A Lower Mainland champs are two great achievements from the Fighting Irish this past season. However, an eighth place finish at their own Emerald Tournament and a second place finish at BC Catholics to Holy Cross ultimately prevented them from finishing in the top five.
Next up: the fifth ranked team on our list.
Written by: Nick Bondi