Aiden Simrose grew up in a basketball family in Vanderhoof and was just a toddler when he started shooting balls through a hoop.
Seventeen years later it’s quite apparent that all that practice time wasn’t wasted.
Now in his fourth and final season with the Nechako Valley Vikings senior team, the Grade 12 point guard showed Friday on the court at D.P. Todd Secondary School why he’s one of the leaders of the pack on a team that’s vying for its fourth-straight double-A boys basketball North Central zone championship.
Simrose collected nine points and the veteran point guard was in thick of things constantly moving the ball and setting up teammates with pinpoint laser passes and that inspired Nechako Valley to a 55-43 win over the host D.P. Todd Trojans Friday afternoon.
“We wanted to have lots of energy, lots of compete this game and just got after it on defence, got after it on the rebounds,” said Simrose.
“We knew we had to turn it up, we didn’t want a close game again.”
Simrose’s crew beat the Trojans by four in overtime at the D.P. Todd tournament three weeks ago to even the season series 1-1 and that gave them confidence they had what it took to put a wet blanket over the reigning Prince George City League champions in Friday’s zone semifinal.
With their win Friday the Vikings locked up their spot in Saturday’s 2:15 p.m. zone final.
The Vikings will play the winner of Saturday’s 9 a.m. game between the Trojans and either Shas Ti Kelly Road or Peter Skene Ogden. If Nechako Valley loses Saturday afternoon the two finalists would play again Sunday at 9 a.m. to determine the lone North Central berth for the double-A provincial championship in Langley March 5-8.
Simrose is weighing his university options to study kinesiology and wants to play for either Alberta or McGill. But first he’s got some unfinished business on the high school basketball court.
He was born to play the game. His dad is Gary Simrose, who took over as Vikings head coach in 1996 when Ron Van Dolah handed him the reins. Gary was an assistant prior to that and has been with the team for close to four decades.
“I’ve been playing, like shooting on the low hoops since I was 10 months old,” said Aiden. “Aa soon as I was one or two and could walk I’d go to the senior practice and watch them and try to do the two-ball dribbling. We have really good coaches and you pick it up at young age and learn those fundamentals and learn how to play as a team.
“We’re trying to keep that title, we’ve won the last three years and I’ve been on all three teams so this would be my fourth year and I want to go out in style.”
The way the Trojans were shooting Friday, they’re lucky they were only trailing by 16 at the break.
“The first half nothing was falling, like threes, layups, nothing,” said Trojans forward Urijah Zurowski. “They’re very aggressive, good defenders too. Now we’re taking the long road, but there’s still a chance.”
Thomas Cross led the Vikings with 15 points, Zeke Ferguson had a 12-point game and Dayne Mueller collected 11 points.
For the Trojans, Markus Sale had 10 points, Zurowski and Matthew Stubley each had nine points and Logan Slater finished with seven.
D.P. Todd couldn’t buy a bucket in the first quarter, outscored 17-7 and their inaccurate shooting continued in the second quarter with the Vikings putting them under pressure with every step. Nechako Valley led 29-13 at halftime.
“They were ice-cold for a long time and I’d like to credit our defence,” said Gary Simrose. “They worked hard, the boys came out and executed the gameplan fairly consistently. It was a team effort, everyone was contributing on the scoreboard when they had the opportunity.”
The Trojans shot better in the second half but were still trailing 41-27 at the end of the third quarter. Mueller hit back-to-back threes early in the fourth quarter and his team’s lead was never threatened.
“We need to be more aggressive, shots weren’t falling and we’ve got to get to the rim,” said Trojans head coach Randy Sandhu. “We’ve just got to be ready. But the tournament’s not over, it’s a double knockout. The boys realize that and they realize they’ve got to play for 40 minutes, that’s what it takes to win a game.”
Ferguson, a Grade 9 guard who moved up from the Nechako Valley junior team, got the Vikings off to a great start when he put up their first five points of the game and he was outside threat whenever he touched the ball. His nose for the net was obvious.
At six-foot-two, 170 pounds he’s got the physical attributes and he seems to already have the tools to become a force by the time he gets a bit more seasoning in the senior game. He certainly drew the attention of the Trojans with his long-range hits in the first and third quarters.
“It’s definitely a whole lot to adjust to after playing junior last year but everything’s going well,” said the 14-year-old Ferguson, who knows his team is top-heavy with Grade 12s that won’t be there next season. “I have lot of guys to learn from and that’s a good thing, it’ll be hard next year.”
College Heights undefeated in triple-A zone tournament at Duchess Park
Meanwhile, at the triple-A zone tournament at Duchess Park Secondary, the College Heights Cougars defeated the Duchess Park Condors 59-45 on Friday to advance to Saturday’s 10 a.m. final.
Grade 11 post Tolu Bankole collected 22 points to lead the Cougars’ cause and also grabbed 14 rebounds.
“Tolu has been playing senior basketball since Grade 9 and he’s one of the most dominant posts in the city for sure,” said Cougars head coach Jordan Yu. “He’s six-foot-four but he plays like he’s six-foot-six, he’s pretty athletic. He’s our leading scorer and he usually averages a double-double. He’s just really tough to guard, inside and out, and he’s been playing very well for us lately.”
The Condors, who opened with a 65-62 win Thursday over the Correlieu Clan, will play Correlieu again tonight at 6 p.m. Correlieu advanced to the semifinal with a win Friday morning over Lake City of Wiliams Lake.
There’s just one triple-A provincial berth up for grabs this weekend.
