‘TOGETHER FROM DAY ONE’: W.J. MOUAT HAWKS REMEMBER THEIR PIECE OF HISTORY

By Bandits Staff Writer: Grant Vassos • March 18, 2021
Paula Thompson now finds herself as a school counsellor at Abbotsford Senior Secondary. But every now and then, the former head coach finds time to make an eight-minute drive to visit her previous home at W.J. Mouat Secondary to see familiar faces and joke around with students on whether they remember her.

They have no clue. 

Ten years have passed since the 2010-11 W.J. Mouat Hawks senior girls basketball team won the B.C. AAA provincial championships, the first in school history. Like their head coach, all of the players from that senior starting lineup have moved on. All graduated and several went on to play Canadian university basketball. 

But despite the passage of time and the subsequent struggle to remember the intricacies of a historic time, one never forgets the climactic moment when the final buzzer sounds and a dream becomes reality. 

“It was such an amazing time for the school, but unless you were a part of that time – I don’t know what the wording is exactly but – the memory is only for those who really were a part of it,” Thompson said. “Because it doesn’t mean anything to the people who weren’t.”

There was forward Katie Brink and guard Jaslyen Singh, who could shoot the ball and run the floor as the team’s secondary playmaker when needed. Guard Ashleyn Sarowa, who despite her small frame, was fearless when it came to driving to the hoop. Jennah Bryce was the defensive minded forward, whose focus was using her long reach to crash the glass and to do all the little things right in order to help her teammates flourish.

And then there was Kayli Sartori, the elite-scoring forward who Thompson could rely on when it counted the most. 

It was a group defined by team chemistry that began brewing during their days playing together in middle school. It was all part of a four-year plan devised by Thompson in 2007 to take a group of ninth graders and mold them into a championship contender by their Grade 12 year. They may not have been the most talented bunch, Sartori said, but they had a fighter’s spirit. On the court, they were “friggin’ warriors.”
Photo courtesy of: Abbotsford News

Mouat opened their season as hosts of the Century 21 Classic, where 16 of B.C.’s elite high school girls teams – including Mouat’s rivals, the Brookswood Bobcats – were to compete to determine the season’s first seedings. In the finals, Brookswood edged out Mouat on their home court by two points to claim the new No.1 seed in the province, as well as tournament hoodies awarded to the winning team.


“They were a completely different team than us,” Sartori said. “They’re a bunch of shooters, small and crafty and we were just a bunch of farm girls. We played the game down low and we were a little bit more aggressive. I mean, people hated playing us. We were a bunch of bruisers out there.”


When it came to skill and depth, Brookswood matched up well with Mouat, so it was a surprise to no one that the Bobcats were a frequent foe throughout the season. “They were crazy, but so were we,” Brink said. 


In the Top 10 Shootout tournament held at Centennial Secondary, Mouat earned their second win over Brookswood – the first coming by 11 points at another tournament over Christmas – in a 68-54 victory over the Bobcats in the finals. Mouat only lost two other games the rest of the regular season, each coming against established high-level schools in Riverside and Claremont. The top-ranked Hawks continued their dominant pace, cruising through the first game of the Fraser Valley AAA tournament against Walnut Grove, followed by a quarter-final drubbing of Elgin Park by 31 points and a victory over Maple Ridge in the semifinals. 


With their spot guaranteed at the AAA provincial championships at Capilano University in North Vancouver, B.C., a chance at securing the school’s first Valley title since 1995 was within a game’s reach. However, a familiar opponent stood in their way once more in Brookswood. 

Mouat won the Valley title game after defeating Brookswood by a convincing score of 78-63, but the game is also remembered for another earlier moment. During pregame warmups, Thompson recalls an act of gamesmanship by her opponents as the Bobcats players entered the court wearing their Century 21 tournament sweatshirts – a  friendly reminder of Mouat’s shortcomings against Brookswood in their first meeting back in November.

 

“I remember my team was so fired up,” Thompson said. “They were like, ‘They have the audacity to wear those sweatshirts like they’re going to beat us?’”

 

Other Hawks players, like Brink, had a more cool-headed take on the jab. 

 

“I give it all to them – that was great,” Brink said. “It was kind of a slap to the face but good on them for doing that. That set a statement, for sure.”

 

As passionate as Mouat was on the court, their compassion off the hardwood was just as visible. During the season, Sartori – who lived outside of town – would often sleep over at Thompson’s house on days when practices went late. Players would continuously hang out in groups at their head coach’s home. They spent so much time there, even Thompson’s children would regard them as older siblings sometimes. 

 

Everyone had an important role to play, including those on the bench. Singh's younger sister, Ashlyen, had her unique way of encouraging her teammates. Before their provincial semifinal game against the South Kamloops Titans, Ashlyen had cut out a Froot Loops cereal box and changed the wording on the front to read 'Kam Loops' to hold up as she sat on the sidelines. 

 

"That sounds like my sister," Singh said, laughing. "Even the team we had on the floor was always just as close as the team we had on the bench."

Singh was elbowed in the nose by one of the South Kamloops players with a minute left to go. The impact left her nose swollen and dripping with blood. Singh did her best to hide the drippage from the refs looming around and was able to finish the game on the court. 


The No.1 ranked Mouat Hawks were advancing to the championship game – albeit at the cost of a broken nose. 


"It was totally worth it," Singh said. "Looking back, I would have done it again. I feel like if it was any other player, they would have played with a broken nose, too."


Singh was given a protective facemask to wear in the provincial championship game against the Claremont Spartans but decided against the mask and resorted to stuffing cotton up her nose instead. Singh couldn't breathe too well, but there was no way she was missing the most important game of her high school career.


From months of pre-season workouts with strength and conditioning staff at Innovative Fitness Abbotsford, swimming sessions once per week, to doing summer programs under Fraser Valley Cascades coach Al Tuchscherer. Even the grueling practices with coach Pat Lee when Thompson felt the need to bring in a different voice. All of it prepared her players for this moment. 


Of all the playmakers and scorers Mouat had to create offense, it was junior forward Melissa Spring who drew the crucial assignment of guarding Claremont's strongest player. Simply put, Spring – who was cut from Thompson's team in Grade 9 – was the only player on the Hawks physically capable of matching with her. 


By the end of two quarters, the Hawks led the Spartans by 18 points. It was as if the result was final going into halftime – but the basketball gods have a funny way of changing the course of a game. Third quarter collapses were a bad habit of Mouat’s during the regular season and the finals were no different. Claremont went on a run and Thompson could feel the nerves creeping in as she looked over to assistant coach Tara Burton. It was anybody's game. 


"Are we going to lose this?" Thompson remembered telling Burton. "Like, you gotta be kidding me. We are not going to lose this."


Meanwhile, Sarowa was feeling a wave of exhaustion coursing through her body. The fatigue of playing three quarters of a championship game, accompanied with the antibiotics she was taking for a sinus infection she developed during the tournament, were taking its toll. Just keep pushing through, she told herself. 

The Hawks fought off the Spartans' comeback and led by three points going into the final minute, needing only one more score to ice the game. The starting five would have to do it without one of their key players in Bryce, who was sitting on the bench – teeth gritted – after fouling out in the fourth quarter on a defensive block. Singh walked the ball up as Thompson screamed at her to reverse the ball. Sartori and Brink were being double-teamed, which left Sarowa open for a shot if they could break Claremont's press.  


“‘Oh my god. I hope she passes me the ball,” Sarowa remembered. 


Singh drove to the hoop, faked a pass, before hitting an open Sarowa for the game-clinching layup over Spartans star post Shalie Dheensaw with five seconds left on the game clock. Brink remembered the ball in her hands as the final seconds of the game ticked off before throwing it as high as she could in excitement as the buzzer sounded. The final score read 69-64 as the Hawks and their family members embraced each other in celebration. 


Singh and Brink were named first and second team all-stars, respectively, while Sartori was named tournament MVP after finishing the game with a team-high 27 points and 10 rebounds. 


"I remember that whole gym being against us," Sartori said. "Not one person besides our friends and family: no other teams, no other coaches, nobody wanted us to win… And when we won, nobody was happy for us besides us. And I don't know if that says something about our team or something about the rest of them. But yeah, we won the game, and it was as if no one clapped besides our families."


While the memory may be fleeting, it remains a piece of history for those who witnessed it. Including the late Felix 'Toto' Gonzalez, who refereed Mouat's provincial championship game. Thompson had gotten to know Gonzalez over her years of coaching. She remembered reminiscing about that game with Gonzalez and how excited he was to see her team win it all. 


Brink, Sartori and Singh would later commit to the University of Fraser Valley at the end of the season, while Sarowa accepted an offer to play at Trinity Western University. 


"These girls, they have a special place in my heart for as long as I will live," Brink said. 


They remain a team of lifelong friends. A basketball family brought together by the sweet memories of that triumphant journey. Together from day one. 

Photos courtesy of: Abbotsford News

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