2023-2024 Bearcats: Season Update
by Mike Teeter, Director of Athletics
This fall, CBC Athletics welcomed many new faces, including three new coaches! Coach Brandon Fields with men’s basketball; Coach Taylor Claggett with women’s basketball; and Coach Kyle Pankratz with men’s volleyball. Athletics was very glad to have our women’s volleyball coach, Becky Wiebe, back in action as well.
Athletics has had one of its best starts to the varsity seasons! All of our teams have multiple wins already. Going into the Christmas break, our basketball teams are both ranked 3rd in the PACWEST and our volleyball teams are both ranked 5th.
Our Bearcats men’s basketball team highlighted their fall semester by beating Vancouver Island University. The VIU men’s basketball team had not lost a regular season game in the past three seasons! Our Bearcats women’s basketball team that same weekend narrowly lost their two games vs VIU women’s team, which is ranked #1 in the country. Our women’s team has already won six games this fall and has proven to be very competitive in all their games.
With all four of our teams finding ways to be competitive, Athletics has been blessed to see our men’s volleyball team rank in the CCAA national standings at #14 in the country (November 7th). A few weeks later, our women’s basketball team was ranked #13 in the country! Not only have our teams been recognized for their success but so too have a few of our student athletes who were named player of the week for their sport in the PACWEST. Elissa Vreugdenhil (women’s basketball) was recognized at the end of October for her scoring and rebounding dominance. In the middle of November, Janae Bruinsma (women’s volleyball) was named player of the week for her leadership and all-around high level of play as her team took two games in five sets. Then before the end of November, Damein Coleman Jr. (men’s basketball) was acknowledged for his ability to fill up the stat sheet, where in two games he had double-digit scoring and rebounding along with multiple assists, steals and blocks.
Along with having some great success on the court, our student athletes have also been involved both in the CBC and the local community. This fall, Athletics has seen our partnership with Athletes in Action (AIA) grow. Our student athletes attended an Athletes Worship Night hosted at CBC. There have been regular meetings of AIA’s Westcoast students at CBC, where Christian athletes from many Fraser Valley schools come together. This fall a couple of our Athletics staff attended an AIA training event and we are excited to see these partnerships grow and expand. Our hope is that all four of our varsity teams would have team chaplains, which would be an additional benefit to our discipleship focus.
