Nanaimo’s Wellington Wildcats are Vancouver Island champions and will be one of the contenders this week at provincial championships.

The ‘Cats, who won the senior AAA boys’ Island title in late February at Victoria High, are getting ready for the B.C. championships starting Thursday, March 6, at the Langley Events Centre.

Wellington went undefeated in league play during the regular season, so they felt confident and prepared going into Islands, but knew their path wouldn’t be easy, said Luke Letham, the team’s coach.

Welly ended up facing the Mark Isfeld Ice in the Island final.

“They had hit quite a few threes on us in previous games, so we wanted to kind of run them off the three point line and run them into our bigs and we did a good job of that,” the coach said.

The victory secured the school’s first senior boys’ basketball Island championship since 2016.

“To put an Island banner up in Wellington means a lot to the school, to the program,” said Letham. “They don’t come around very often, there’s not many of them up in the gym and we’re usually in the mix competing every year.”

He said the Vancouver Island championship was also on the players’ man goals from the start of the season, so for the coaching staff, it was good to see the guys get rewarded.

The Wildcats had a good week of practice last week and coaches are also trying to make sure players are mentally prepared for the grind of provincials. They’re the province’s second-ranked team, but were still waiting for the draw as of press time.

“Once you get over to Vancouver, every game is going to be tough over there at provincials – AAA’s tough again this year, but I think we’re more in the mix this year,” Letham said. “We match up pretty good against a lot of the teams over there.”

Other senior boys’ basketball teams going to provincials are the Dover Bay Dolphins, who defeated the Oak Bay Bays by a 90-80 score in a challenge game Thursday, Feb. 27, in Victoria, to earn a berth in AAAA provincials, and the Nanaimo Christian School Trail Blazers, who were runners-up on the Island and will compete at single-A provincials.