The Quest University Kermodes women's basketball team went to a familiar place to recruit new talent for the 2011-'12 season.
Riverside Secondary School (Coquitlam) graduates Hillary Young and Chelsea Harteveld will join past Riverside graduate Nicola Hitchcock on the squad this fall. This marks the fourth Riverside Rapids alumni to join the team, as Chelsea's sister Brittany Harteveld was part of the Quest's first graduating class in April.
The other new face is Shayna Cameron from Chilliwack. Women's team head coach Mike Woollard said he was pleased to see all three players join the team.
"Shayna [Cameron] is a 5-foot, 8-inch guard who led Chilliwack into regional play this year," he said. "She is a dead-eye three-point shooter and has an absolute passion for the game. A sound decision maker in both the open court and in halfcourt sets, I would expect her to be one of our physically strongest guards."
He said that the two Rapids alumni should fit in well, too.
"Chelsea Harteveld was a leader on the provincial runners-up Riverside team during the 2008-'09 school year and may have shown even more poise as a senior helping a very young Riverside once more make it to provincials," he said. "We are also extremely excited to add Hillary Young. She will bring our athleticism to another level."
The three new players and the returning squad will also have some big shoes to fill as Woollard announced that Ruth Thanert and Krystal Schouten will not be wearing the green and white next year.
Schouten will be moving on to the University of British Columbia-Okanagan and Thanert is weighing several potential suitors. The losses could prove to be significant as Thanert was eighth in league scoring and was named to the British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association's all-rookie team last year.
"We're going to be losing a lot of our size," Woollard said. "And we're really losing our best player from two years ago [Schouten] and our best player from last year [Thanert]. But I think a lot of our players are ready to step up. Delainee Behrns, Maja Smiljic and Nicola Hitchcock will all have another year under their belt and should be better players."
Woollard also pointed out that the three new recruits will add more overall size to the team at the guard position.
For more information on Quest athletics, visit www.questkermodes.ca.
