The University of Northern British Columbia basketball teams will begintheir eighth season of varsity action on Friday, with home gamesagainst Columbia Bible College. This is the last season that theTimberwolves will play their home games at the College of NewCaledonia; the new Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre will be open oncampus next fall.

The men’s team is anchored by 4th-year player Jay Gladish ofChilliwack, last year’s top scorer in the entire BC Colleges’ AthleticAssociation. Last year, Gladish averaged 20 point per game, more than apoint per game higher than his closest competitor.

Gladish is the latest in a series of UNBC student-athletes who havebeen recognized provincially and nationally. Despite its youth, UNBCAthletics has already produced six Academic All-Canadians, fourAthletic All-Canadians, and 15 BCCAA All-Stars. The TimberwolvesAthletic Association has recently been formed to strengthen the linkbetween Athletics and the community, in anticipation of the opening ofthe Northern Sport Centre.

“Walking onto the construction site, I was surprised by how big andimpressive the new Sport Centre is already,” says the 22-year oldGladish, who is enrolled in the Commerce degree at UNBC. “But we haveto stay focused on this year first. For us, it’s more important to havea successful team; the new building is just the icing on the cake.”

“It will be a huge boost for our Athletics program when the new SportCentre opens next year,” says women’s basketball coach Loralyn Murdoch.“The promise of that new facility is already helping our recruitmentand retention efforts. We already have the best home-game attendance ofany team in our league; next year will be unbelievable.”

The Charles Jago Northern Sport Centre will house a three-court gymwith seating for 2000, two indoor fields, an elevated 280m track, andoffices for high-performance coaches. It will be the premier sporttraining facility in northern BC, serving as the home base for theprovincial biathlon and cross-country skiing teams. The Government ofBC has contributed $20.5 million of the facility’s $30.75 million cost,with UNBC and the City of Prince George splitting the remainder.

For the schedule of basketball games and information about team members, see www.unbc.ca/athletics.

Contact:
Rob van Adrichem, Director of Media and Public Relations, UNBC - 250.960.5622 

Downloads

Click on an image of Jay Gladish below to download the high-resolution version.