The St. Thomas More Knights will carry the Burnaby mantel into the Canadian high school ultimate championships this weekend.
Ten B.C. teams, including STM, will take on high schools from the rest of Canada in the 16-team national championship taking place at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex-West this Saturday and Sunday.
Two schools from Manitoba, three from Ontario and one from as far away as St. Bonaventure, Newfoundland will also be vying this weekend to be called the top ultimate high school team in Canada.
Pool play begins Saturday at 9 a.m. and runs all day at Burnaby Lake-West.
The No. 5-seeded Knights are in Pool D with Vancouver westside Point Grey, No. 4 Earl Haig from Ontario and Sturgeon Heights from Manitoba.
STM will open up Saturday against the Manitoba school at 10:30 a.m., followed by Point Grey at noon.
The Knights will take on Earl Haig at 3 p.m.
North Vancouver’s Sutherland Secondary is seeded first overall.
Championship play runs all day Sunday at BLSC-West, leading up to the gold-medal final, scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
STM has long been the only school from Burnaby competing in disc sports.
But that has all changed, with as many as eight local district public and private schools now playing in either senior or junior divisions in the three-tier Fraser Valley Junior Ultimate League.
STM currently shares the lead in the senior Tier 1 division with unbeaten Kwantlen Park, both at 4-0.
Burnaby North, at 3-1, holds down third place in the top tier along with senior teams from Burnaby Central and Burnaby Mountain.
New Westminster Secondary is currently among a logjam of four schools vying for the runner-up spot behind unbeaten runaway leader Regent Christian in Tier Two. Alpha and Burnaby South also compete in the senior second tier.
Burnaby independent Carver Christian Academy, along with current leader STM and North, also campaign in the Fraser Valley junior division.
