Sydney Teece reflects ahead of BU hoops Senior Night

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2024 (609 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You learn a lot about a person when breaks don’t go their way.

One day, Sydney Teece might catch one. If it wasn’t already clear when Novell Thomas recruited her, there’s no doubt around Brandon University now about how remarkable the Regina product is.

Teece will watch the last two home games of her Bobcats women’s basketball career from the sideline tonight at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m., a fate she knew less than two weeks into training camp when she went down with multiple torn ligaments in her knee.

The Bobcats (1-13) will recognize the fifth-year guard/forward, along with third-year Reetta Tulkki and Vincent Massey alumna Josie Grift — who transferred to the University of Winnipeg after the 2022-23 season — for Senior Night after Saturday’s game against the Saskatchewan Huskies (12-0).

Teece has every right to be mad at the world for how her U Sports career went down. Yet, you’d be hard-pressed to find a student-athlete with a better attitude.

“It’s hard to even find the words to explain the past five years,” she said as she watched practice on Wednesday.

“I feel like it’s been such a roller coaster of things with COVID and I’ve had three different coaches in the time I’ve been here. I was hurt last year. Obviously, I hurt myself this year.

“It’s meant a lot to me to be here and to go through this program with all the teammates I’ve had, all the coaches I’ve had. I’ve made lifelong friendships I’ll cherish forever. That’s the biggest thing I’ll take away from the past five years.”

Teece started her post-secondary career at the University of New Brunswick as a redshirt in 2018-19 and, when she wanted a change of pace, connected with Thomas.

At five-foot-six, Teece was somewhat of an enigma. She didn’t play like anyone else her size and didn’t fit the standard definition of any of the five positions on the floor.

While she wasn’t much of a scorer, she could truly guard anyone from five-foot-two to six-foot-two and beat them out for rebounds. Teece caused positive chaos in her 11.2 minutes per game in 2019-20, which featured one unforgettable weekend.

She scored what was then a career-high of nine points on 3-for-4 three-point shooting as the Bobcats beat the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in front of a crowd of 897, mainly comprised of school kids who got Friday off to cheer BU on.

“The stands were packed. I’ve never seen the HLC so full and they were all cheering for us. The energy was just amazing and that whole game was so exciting. It felt so, so good to play that day,” Teece recalled.

“My first year I was here, that experience was really amazing for me and I was like ‘I can see myself here for the next four years. I want to stay here. I want to build with this program, be here and accomplish the things I know we can.”

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic followed, leading to the cancellation of the 2020-21 season, which ended with Thomas stepping away from his position.

James Bambury got the job and Teece played the next two seasons under him, but missed significant time in two stretches with injuries in 2022-23.

Then, Bambury took a one-year personal leave and assistant coach Jaime Taggart got the interim job for Teece’s final season, which never truly started.

“Teece has had the worst university career, total. How many coaches? That alone, plus COVID, to fight through all that, to train every summer, sacrifice everything for your team and week two of your senior year, have a catastrophic knee injury. Not just ACL, everything. It’s heartbreaking,” Taggart said, adding she’s impressed with how Teece responded to devastation.

“She has high emotional intelligence and because of that she can process and communicate and handle and deal, and maintain focus on the bigger picture. She’s going to have a really good life. She still has a lot. She’s healthy, she can still finish her degree, she can still be on the team, she just contributes in a different way.”

Teece said the Bobcats have been “super supportive” since the injury and motivated her to recover and get back to basketball in some capacity as soon as possible. She’s still on track to graduate from the faculty of education this spring and will likely head back to Regina for work.

First, the Bobcats will close the regular season with road trips to Fraser Valley (10-2) in Abbotsford, B.C., plus Victoria on Vancouver Ilan.

While they’re only two games out of the playoffs, the next four are against championship contenders and the Vikes are much stronger than their record suggests since returning six-foot-one guard Tana Pankratz from a lengthy injury this semester.

Teece will travel with the team for — barring multiple massive upsets — its final road trip of the season.

Her teammates have been impressed all year with how she’s handled the situation.

“I honestly don’t know how she’s doing it,” Tulkki said.

“It says a lot about her. She loves the team, loves basketball and it’s really unfortunate that happened to her knee.”

For Teece, 2023-24 turned into one more learning opportunity to carry forward.

“I’ve had to overcome a lot while I’ve been here,” she said. “So (the biggest thing I’ve learned is) just being able to take all the adversity that you face and learn from it and grow from it and use it to make you a stronger, better person.”

BU MEN BATTLE FOR SEEDS

On the men’s side, no players are officially being recognized on Senior Night, though it’s unlikely the same group is back next year.

However, they’ll deal with next season after this one. The Bobcats (10-4) have clinched a playoff spot and are playing for the best possible position with an important weekend against the Huskies (8-4) ahead.

Brandon just survived two close battles with the winless MacEwan Griffins and will close the regular season on the road against the Cascades (4-8) and Vikes (8-2).

Playoff seeds are awarded based on the rating percentage index (RPI), rather than strictly on record. As it stands, the Bobcats likely need to go 5-1 to close the season if they want a first-round bye.

This weekend, the big obstacles in their way are veteran forward Alexander Dewar and guard Chan De Ciman, who average 17.6 and 9.8 points per game, respectively.

Saskatchewan goes deep on the bench, with nine players averaging between 13 and 28 minutes per game.

BU on the other hand plays six for more than 12 minutes and four starters average at least 32 mpg and 11 ppg.

They tip off tonight at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Instagram: @thomasfriesen5