Seniors Night Preview: Women’s Basketball

On Saturday, Feb 15 the Cascades will officially honour the five fifth-year players on their roster in a Seniors Night ceremony. The event will follow the team’s final regular season home game, another chapter in their cross-valley rivalry with the TWU Spartans. In preparation we’ve asked each athlete two questions:

1. What do you remember about your rookie year?

2. How has your experience as a UFV Cascade changed or challenged you?

Come out on Saturday to celebrate the careers of some of UFV’s finest student athletes. We hope to see you there!

Nicole Wierks

Nicole Wierks (2009)

Nicole Wierks came to UFV for the 2009-2010 season from Chilliwack Secondary in Chilliwack, BC. She and her fellow rookies arrived during a massive rebuild, and were asked to lead the team from the very beginning. This weekend, if she starts both games, Wierks will move into ninth all-time in the Canada West with 97 starts over her CIS career. She will be missed.

Nicole Says:

1. I think that my experience as a rookie was probably a lot different as UCFV had just transitioned into UFV and that meant that we had just gone from the college league into the CIS league … I’ve been starting since my first year and it was a good experience for me because I got thrown into it and I had to learn fast. That was part of why I picked UFV because I knew I would get a lot of minutes, but it was still a bit of culture-shock – shell-shock is probably a better way to describe it – because we were young girls going up to play against women!

Nicole Wierks (2013)

I had never set foot in a weight-room until the summer going in, and even that I didn’t take seriously. So I didn’t know what it took to be a CIS basketball player until I found out my first game that year!

2. I think that it wasn’t what I expected, but that it became a better experience than I ever thought it would be. I think you go in with these ideas like “it’s going to be so good! It will be so easy for me!” and I think it just taught me a lot about myself as a person and how much I can push my own limits. It taught me so much about my own team, especially with Aieisha, Courtney, Alexa, and Sam and other girls that aren’t here any more. Growing up with those girls, I was lucky enough to form lifetime bonds with them, and make friends that I’m going to know for the rest of my life.

It’s such a learning curve and such a good learning experience that I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You learn how to communicate, you learn how to take criticism, you learn how to be a leader when it’s appropriate and when to just let other people do their thing. I hope that really this basketball program just keeps on being a strong program, because we went from being on the bottom of the pack to something that is a respectable program in Canada. I know the girls have some struggles in the future with the explorers and pioneers scheduling … but I really think that we’ve set the foundation for a program that’s going to be prominent in Canada West and the CIS for years to come.”

Coach Tuchscherer Says:

“A five year starter on the court and a soon to be a five time academic All-Canadian off the court, Nicole has had a special career at UFV.  We’ve never had a player of Nicole’s ability in our program.  She can effectively defend all five positions on the floor and she has made more than a few All-Canadians look rather average when they are playing the Cascades.  Nicole is a classic over thinker in practice and I often wonder if she has been sent in by her teammates when things are tense to distract the coaches with a barrage of questions.  We’ll all miss her quirkiness but make no mistake, she is one of the most fierce competitors I have coached and Nicole will be successful at everything she does beyond basketball.”

Aieisha Luyken

Aieisha Luyken (2009)

Aieisha Luyken came to UFV for the 2009-2010 season from Mission Secondary in Mission, BC. Over her five years at UFV she has become not only the Cascade’s starting point guard, but also team captain. Luyken has played her way onto several Canada West all-time charts, and has been key to the Cascades’ transition from CIS newcomer to Canada West powerhouse. She will be missed.

Aieisha Says:

1. I just remember that we only had one fifth year on the team at the time, and we were just thrown into the mix because there were no other vets on the team, so as rookies we were blessed with being able to play as much as we wanted. We had to learn really quick since we were tossed into the whole university experience … It was a hard and fast year for us, ‘repressed memories’ as we like to say (laughs).

2. Coming to school I knew I wanted to be part of a family atmosphere, I wasn’t just coming here to play basketball, I wanted to make sure that I was impacting the community and impacting younger girls that wanted to play and I feel that UFV has

Aieisha Luyken (2013)

helped me be able to accomplish that throughout my university career. We kind of focus on three different things as part of being an athlete here, it’s not just about what you do on the court but also in the classroom and in the community. This team, being involved with such amazing girls in the past five years, has helped me be a better person.

Coach Tuchscherer Says:

“We recruited Aieisha to take our program to another level.  We needed an athlete with a presence, one who could lead our young team.  She was thrown into that role from day one, and for five years she was asked to lead our program to places we’d never been before.  It was all terribly unfair for sure, but we knew she could handle the burden we were placing on her shoulders and she has done a marvelous job.  She and her fellow seniors have taken our program to uncharted territory and they have set the stage for future teams and student-athletes to build on their legacy.  For sure she has made me a better coach and it will be a challenge to have someone different leading our team next after what ‘Eesh’ has done for the past five years.”

 Courtney Bartel

Courtney Bartel (2009)

Courtney Bartel came to UFV for the 2009-2010 season from Chilliwack Secondary in Chilliwack BC. She will be missed

Courtney Says:

1. My rookie year was like mayhem, it was the year that all of our group tries to forget about because it was so crazy that year!  I think the best thing was that we actually got playing time in our first year, which is not usually something that happens at this level … so that was one of the positives that year aside from all the losses that we had (laughs).

2. I think it’s been great over all of my five years. I’ve grown so much, not just me personally, but with this group of girls. We’ve become such a tight group now it feels like family after all these years, and Al’s been a coach that we just love to play for. It’s been a great experience, not only on court but off court as well. It’s crazy that five years has come and gone already because first year just seemed so long and then you think during second and third year how you’re still have so many more years left and

Courtney Bartel (2013)

then ‘bam!’ you’re done. You look back at all the accomplishments we’ve made and how far we’ve gotten and the upsets we’ve had … it’s been an exciting five years!

Coach Tuchscherer Says:

“’Court’ is one of the most athletic guards our program has seen and a key contributor on the court for her entire five years.  She has the ability to fill a score sheet and impact a game in many ways.  She knocks down shots from deep in bunches, keeps possessions alive with timely rebounding, gets key steals on the defensive end of the floor, and seems to always have the presence of mind to make the right decisions in tight games.  Court is a very low maintenance player that has just come and done her job every day for five years. . . equally impressive as a starter or a sixth man, Courtney is a great practice player and leader, and someone we always look to when gauging the pulse of the team.”

 Samantha Kurath

Samantha Kurath (2009)

Samantha Kurath came to UFV for the 2009-2010 season from W.J. Mouat Secondary in Abbotsford BC. She will be missed.

Samantha Says:

1. We struggled a lot. We had a lot of injuries that year and we weren’t the best, but I knew all the girls and I’d played for Al over the summer so I was pretty comfortable.

Coaches Tuchscherer, Luyken, and Boskow are great people to be around. I learned how to play with a team and discovered some great people in the process.

Coach Tuchscherer Says:

“Sam is one of the most respected and beloved teammates on the Cascades.  For five years she has come to every practice ready to make her team better – knowing that that won’t always translate to minutes in games.  She has filled a tremendously difficult role on our team and because of her approach to that role everyone can relate to and respect Sam – from first years to fellow seniors.  She always makes younger

Samantha Kurath (2013)

teammates feel at ease and makes her more veteran teammates laugh.She is very active in community initiatives – volunteering with big sisters and being one of our most dedicated coaches in the Junior Cascades club program.”

Alexa McCarthy

Alexa McCarthy (2008)

Alexa McCarthy came to UFV for the 2008-2009 season from Chilliwack Secondary in Chilliwack BC. While she has been unable to play this season, her contributions to the Cascades during her time at UFV have been invaluable. McCarthy has been integral in helping her teammates grow in their community involvement and world awareness, organizing events like the Cascades annual ‘Shoot For The Cure’ night and volunteering her time to many causes. She will be missed.

Alexa Says:

1. It was too long ago I don’t even remember what it was like (laughs). Things have changed so much that you can’t really compare being a rookie now and being a rookie then.

2. My time hasn’t gone as I thought it would, but I probably wouldn’t change anything at the same time. You have your goals and expectations coming in, and while it hasn’t gone as I’d planned, I wouldn’t want to be in any other

Alexa McCarthy (2013)

situation than I am right now, around the people that I got to be around, and coached by Al. I wouldn’t change it, it’s been a blast.

Coach Tuchscherer Says:

“Alexa’s career was cut short due to multiple injuries, but her contributions to our program far exceeded anything I could have imagined when we recruited her six years ago.  She is the ideal teammate, the hardest working athlete our program has seen, and the most giving leader we have seen in our programs history.  Alexa is an amazing person who is respected by everyone she comes into contact with.  She is a 3 time winner of the UFV Athletics Community Service Award, has been nationally recognized with the Sylvia Sweeney award, and is one of UFV’s most valued student leaders.  Her humility is her biggest weakness in that I don’t think she is capable of understanding the profound influence she has on others and our program.  I wish she could stay in our program forever, but we all know Alexa has bigger and better things waiting for her in the ‘real world.’”