The high-five.
It’s pretty much a universal gesture of accomplishment, especially in sports.
But at Burnaby Mountain Secondary, the high-fives going around on the hard court mean a little more.
Sure the high school’s girls AAA basketball team is winning games, but the high-fives are an easy way for the team – which has a make-up fit for the United Nations – to communicate.
“I choose this school by basketball,” Karen Ito, a guard, recently told the NOW.
“I wanted to play basketball and meet local students.”
The outgoing 17-year-old came to the school this fall from Japan and is one of four international students on the team.
The teen joined players from Germany, China and Italy.
Ito explained she played a little ball back home but didn’t have a coach or an organized team to play for.
In fact, all of the girls have little experience playing the game at a competitive level.
In the case of Eugenia Garaffo, the 17-year-old Italian has never played the sport in her life.
She fell in love with the Vancouver area on a trip a few years back and wanted to come to Burnaby on an exchange.
Garaffo figured joining the team would be a good way to improve her English and make friends.
“It was a big challenge because it’s a sport you don’t know,” she said, admitting her first game was terrible.
The international flavour of the team is really a microcosm of the school itself.
There are 165 international students at Burnaby Mountain this year, and each year the numbers keep growing.
But the way this motley crew of players came together sounds more like something that might come out of a Hollywood studio then the halls of a local high school.
It began last year when school vice-principal and coach James Morton was looking at putting a senior girls team together.
The team’s star Jacey Bailey, who recently drained 55 points in a game en route to smashing records at the Britannia Invitational, had been with the program since Grade 8, but a lack of players before the season threatened to nix her final season.
Morton wanted to give the six-foot phenom an opportunity to play, so he hung up a signup sheet looking for players.
What he got was the four basketball players from around the world, without whom there would be no team.
Keeping an open mind, the coach held a few practices to see what he had to work with. He admits there were challenges in the beginning, especially getting down the basics of the sport at a team level.
Catherine Zheng didn’t even know the rules.
The Chinese student, who plays guard, said it was a big learning curve when she joined the team, pointing out she only played a bit of ball in her home country as a hobby.
“In China, (students) have too much work so they don’t have to do sports,” Zheng said.
The Grade 11 student came to Burnaby last year to join her sister, who studies at Simon Fraser University, and had no idea at the time she would sign up for the team.
Since none of the kids were likely to throw it down like Lebron, Morton, a fan and student of the game he played back in high school, preached hard work, commitment and defence.
“These kids were amazing,” he said, pointing out the teens embraced all their obstacles.
“They’ve really bought into working together as a group, and that’s what you want on any sports team is that collective unity and solidarity they have. They fight, they fight on the court.”
Make no mistake, these girls and this team show up to win. Though the season got off to a rough start, fortunes have turned around in a big way at the most opportune time.
The team won six in a row in league play and sits in the middle of the pack in the Burnaby-New Westminster division, with playoffs set to begin this week.
The team has been giving up just about 30 points a game on average.
Morton is only a little surprised by the success.
“They’ve done a great job; they realize now the work they’ve put in is why they’re successful,” he said. “They’re teaching each other.”
While the coach is quick to praise the kids, the players send it back to their coach.
“I played basketball in Germany, but we had a really bad coach,” said Karen Moehler with a chuckle.
The 16-year-old from Germany credits Morton for a big improvement in her skills, adding she’s never played this much before coming to the team.
Moehler found her way to Burnaby after seeing a presentation about the school district in her native land. She too wanted to improve her English and do some travelling, so she chose Burnaby Mountain.
“I love sports and I try to do as much as I can, so I was like ‘go for basketball,’” she said.
The players are also learning from their star, in Bailey who they say has been a huge support on the court.
Though the current focus is on the playoffs and a berth at the provincials in March, eventually, the team and the four students will go their separate ways.
For these girls, their time up and down the BMSS court is about the relationships and bonds they’ve formed in such a short time.
Moehler said she already knows she’s going to visit Ito in Japan, while the rest all intend to stay in contact in some way and share their Canadian basketball experience when they return home.
As for those high fives, back in Japan, in a no-touch culture, they’re not so common.
Ito’s bringing that tradition home too.
