If you’d like to know more about Salmon Arm’s basketball history, or just revisit it, here’s one way to do it.
Salmon Arm’s Mr. Hockey, Roy Sakaki, administrator for the Salmon Arm Minor Hockey Association, sent an email to the Observer recently about basketball.
He pointed out there’s a great video made two years ago for Rogers Hometown Hockey that features basketball star Bev Smith. She was inducted into both the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame and the BC Sports Hall of Fame.
As Sakaki said: “Bev Smith was part of the glory days of the Salmon Arm Secondary School Jewels female basketball team. They won many consecutive BC High School female provincial championships, never before matched in B.C. basketball history. Tremendous coaches… Al Bianco, Joe Kupkee, Terry Michell only to name a few. She talks about growing up in Salmon Arm and it was all about hockey in her household until she and her sister discovered basketball. Dad Lloyd was an incredible hockey player in his time. He has long since passed away. How did a small city like Salmon Arm produce such great basketball players?! It is worth a study!” he wrote.
Sakaki said if he looks at the rather archaic basketball court (very recently torn up) across from the old Memorial Arena today, “I can still see a young girl taking shots and doing layups back in the ’70s. She was relentless!”
The video (see below) can be found on YouTube under “Bev Smith’s Journey In Sports That Began In Salmon Arm | Home Team Heroes.”
Read more: Salmon Arm history in pictures: Basketball champs
Read more: Hall of Famer Bev Smith heralds benefits of sport for youth development
Read more: Bev Smith’s experience an asset
Read more: Joining BC Hall of Fame
Read more: Former Jewel off to Olympics
martha.wickett@saobserver.net
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