Early Days of Basketball at Norfolk House and Glenlyon

Basketball at GNS really only took off as a school wide activity for all ages after the Amalgamation in 1986. Up to that time, at Norfolk House and Glenlyon Preparatory School it was considered an extra sports activity supplementing the major sports of each term—although there were a few successful years and some teams and coaches might argue the question of whether their chosen activity was secondary to other sports!

At Norfolk House School in the mid/late 1930s, the school was well-settled into their new campus at Pemberton Woods. Initially, Miss Atkins with her traditionalist background felt that basketball was unladylike and that jumping around was bad for a young girl’s health. But, with some gentle pressure from staff and students, she relented and allowed her senior students to play, initially as a House activity and then practices for inter-school games. Interestingly though, practices for the senior players were often held at the Memorial Hall at the back of Christ Church Cathedral and not in the “new” gym built on the PW site in 1933. The first recorded information about basketball appeared in the NHS Review of 1940 stating: Basketball was very much in evidence this year. Eight basketball teams from the Island competed for the Hocking Cup in the Victoria High gymnasium. The NHS team ended their season on a high note by beating the Victoria High team 16-13 in a fast, hard game. Two years later at the same tournament, the school’s record showed improvement by beating Vic. College 10-2, St.Anne’s Academy 8-2 and tying with Vic High 6-6 and Oak Bay High 4-4 to finish fourth overall.

It wasn’t until the mid-sixties however, with the coaching of Mrs. Watton, that NHS started to show signs of being consistently competitive in the games they played. This trend continued through to the 1970 season when, for the very first time, NHS were outright winners of the annual Overman Trophy competition with St.Margaret’s. In the following two years, NHS won the Round Robin Tournament for the first time since its running. This competition was later to be called the Independent Tournament for schools in Vancouver and Vancouver Island and was the forerunner of the I.S.A. Tournaments. NHS beat York House in the final. The triumphant team consisted of V.Coombes, P.Temple, J.Bigelow, S.Olynyk, J.Rummel, M.Todd, M.J.Henning, H.Dunbar, S.Smith, L.Sealy, D.Mills, and V.Leir. In an all-Victoria final versus St.Margaret’s, NHS won again in 1972 in overtime 20-16. The victorious team included seven returnees from the previous Championship year plus K.McCue and T.Gladwell.

It proved to be several years later however, before NHS basketball became a threat amongst provincial independent schools again. For a number of years the school did not even compete. Not until 1985 did they knock on the door of a provincial independent school title–this time they were runners-up, and the 1986 Junior High team had a great winning season that was to set the standard for future GNS girls teams and showed the importance and value of competing at Elementary, Junior High and Senior levels with good coaching and commitment.

Glenlyon’s first year playing basketball was 1964, competing mostly against St.Michael’s and Cliffside schools. But for a variety of reasons other activities took up the practice time, playing time and coaching interest. It was not until the 1984 season, after little or no focus on basketball during the 1970s that a team was put together at the elementary level and had a ‘miracle’ season. Coached by UVic student, Gordie Medd, they went through the season with a 14-1 record to win the coveted City Schools Championship. 

The team consisted of Eric Gottfredson, Ty Whittaker, Chris Whittaker, Paul Turner, Sean Hern, Paul Collis, Jon Norgaard, Ian Auld, Ned Easton, Andy Costa, and Jason Ford. This group of young boys with loads of talent, three practices a week, and several exhibition games to hone their skills, prepared themselves for a tough schedule with a 14-1 record. The only loss was to George Jay in exhibition by a score of 32-33, a team they ended up playing in the Schools Championship Final and winning 38-22. 

It was a remarkable season and together with the growing success of the girls at NHS, the interest from students and dedicated, enthusiastic coaching by staff, basketball was established as a viable sport programme for all levels on all campuses as the schools moved into the GNS era.