The entrance wall to the Spectrum Community School gym features Sports Hall of Fame displays of past great athletes from the school, and its forbearer, Mount View Secondary, dating to 1932.
They include tributes to inductees such as Super Bowl champion Eddie Murray, Grey Cup champion Dave Cutler, Olympians Bob Bolitho, Dean Crawford and Clark Davis, and Pan Am Games performers Shanice Marcelle and Mike Piechnik.
Despite the West Saanich institution’s sporting success, including a girls’ B.C. basketball championship in 1995, Spectrum has never had a boys’ basketball team ranked No. 1 in the province. Until now, and this current thunderous Thunder team, which has been given the B.C. top ranking in Quad-A this week for the first time in school history.
“It’s the first time Spectrum has been relevant [in boys’ basketball] in a long time,” said Thunder head coach Tyler Verde.
Spectrum/Mount View’s only two Island championships in boys’ hoops came in 1986 and 1990.
Spectrum was 11-1 overall heading into Wednesday night’s league game against the Belmont Bulldogs, including a win over the host and previously top-ranked Oak Bay Bays last weekend in the final of the annual Gary Taylor Classic tournament. Spectrum records indicate it was the first victory by the Thunder over the Bays since 1990. The only blemish this season for Spectrum has been a tournament loss to a California top-20 team, Santa Margarita Eagles, loaded with NCAA-committed players.
The Spectrum team is built around six-foot-four star Justin Hinrichsen, son of former University of Victoria Vikes national champion and 2000 Sydney Olympian Eric Hinrichsen, with the genes evident. The other key players are six-foot-eight forward Tyler Felt and guard Jay Helman. The scary thing is that all three are in Grade 11 on a team that has only four Grade 12 players.
“We built this from the ground up and have progressed a long way,” said Spectrum mentor Verde. “We are building a culture here that we hope will be special.”
It already is and looks to be the equivalent of the Spectrum girls’ basketball program of the 1990s. That was when six-foot-six post player Christine Rigby led Spectrum to the 1995 B.C. title before winning an NCAA championship with the powerhouse UConn Huskies, and Spectrum point-guard Lindsay Brooke went to two B.C. championship games and won one en route to winning two national championships with the University of Victoria Vikes.
Nearly three decades later, it’s the Spectrum boys charging toward possible B.C. glory.
“We play every game like it’s the provincial final,” said Verde.
“We’re a quick team that runs it down your throat. We also play intense defence and cause a lot of turnovers.”
Verde, a chemistry and science teacher at the school, has coached the Thunder since 2017-18. He played his high school basketball with the Prince Rupert Rainmakers. There are a number of former Rainmakers in town and they stick together. One of them is legendary former national team and UVic Vikes dynasty-era coach Ken Shields, who has been helping Verde during Spectrum practice sessions.
There is now a league break for Christmas but Spectrum will be back in action next week in the annual UVic Alumni High School Tournament that features top teams from B.C., Washington and California.
