Java Jam a big job for guard/stuco president

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This article was published 07/02/2025 (352 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

All but one of the Crocus Plainsmen are in unison, warming up for the opening game of the Coffee Culture Java Jam on Thursday afternoon.

Then there’s Grace Mohr-Clark on her phone.

Kids these days, right?

Not so fast. She’s been preparing for the tournament for three weeks now and has a good excuse. Not only is she a starting guard for the varsity girls’ basketball team, she’s the student council president orchestrating today’s pep rally, skills competition and more.

Mohr-Clark added a twist to the tournament this year. When she found out another Crocus student’s mother, Manisha Patel, owns Coffee Culture, she connected with her and secured the aptly named title sponsor for the 18-year-old tournament.

Patel called to let Mohr-Clark know she had arrived to set up a pop-up store in the hallway outside the gymnasium just before warmups started. They’ll be on site today as well.

“This is my life, I run around,” Mohr-Clark chuckled, noting she never expected to represent her student body this way. “It was almost a joke. Last year, I was the social media manager and my joke was I wanted Crocus to have a better TikTok, Instagram, whatever.

“I just got roped into it and I’ve always felt like a leader, knowing my roles, by the end of last year … it just happened. I knew it was the right thing for me.

“I love how busy I am.”

The five-foot-seven guard didn’t start playing basketball until Grade 10 when, like many girls before her, coach Adam Hartman gave her the push she needed.

“He just pulls you into the gym like, ‘Just come try.’ That day I tried, I fell in love with it. It’s a good community and it’s my rock, it’s what I rely on. The sport, the girls, the whole thing, it’s the best community,” Mohr-Clark said.

• • •

Day 1 of the Java Jam is in the books and the Plainsmen started strong, dropping the Portage Saints 65-36.

While the final isn’t until Saturday, today’s the big one for Mohr-Clark. The student council is staging a pep rally and skills competition at 2:30 p.m., featuring a two-ball dribbling relay race, a two-player shooting contest and a “red light, green light” game.

“Like Squid Game, (except) no shooting,” Mohr-Clark said of the popular dystopian Netflix series, which recently released its second season.

Mohr-Clark still has to focus on today’s 10:45 a.m., clash with the Selkirk Royals, and has a big one against the province’s top-ranked Vincent Massey Trojans at 6 p.m.

But she said the busy day is possible thanks to terrific staff advisors and her student council team, including vice-president Bennett Ashmead.

“They’re such a helping hand. They know my commitment to basketball and they know this is my love, and that’s my love as well,” Mohr-Clark said.

The Plainsmen basketball schedule is busy enough for most seniors without a student council to run. They started with their home Early Bird tournament before the Christmas break, falling in the final to the Vincent Massey Vikings.

They’ve been to Winnipeg for two tournaments, defeating the No. 9-ranked Fort Richmond Centurions and Daniel McIntyre Maroons a month ago at the John Taylor Piper Classic to finish third. They also went undefeated at Massey’s Vikings Invitational on Jan. 17-18.

They want one more Winnipeg trip for provincials, but it won’t be easy. The Brandon High School Basketball League regular season will come down to Tuesday’s game at Massey, where they need to win by seven or more to secure the bye to the best-of-three final after falling 48-41 in their first regular-season battle.

Outcomes aside, Hartman is incredibly glad Mohr-Clark joined the program in Grade 10.

“Grace is an incredible student, she’s an incredible teammate and an incredible basketball player,” Hartman said. “What she means to the team off the floor is so important. For her to bring leadership to the school and leadership to the team on the court but also off means so much to us.

“We’re not year-in, year-out competing for provincial titles but consistently year-in and year-out we’re putting a pretty darn good basketball team on the floor. It’s a program our girls believe in and it means a lot to their high school career. To see the impact it makes on them … from when I’m having to convince them to play basketball to when they leave our program, it means a lot.”

Before racing back to the court to join pre-game layup lines, Mohr-Clark echoes Hartman’s sentiment.

“This group has been amazing. It is so close-knit and I genuinely have a great relationship with every girl on this team. I trust them fully,” she said.

“I’ve played basketball on a team where you just respect everybody but this is a team where you love everybody.

“It reflects on the court as well. Even in those hard losses like the one against Massey, we all cried together and it’s a tough loss but we still love each other and we’re still grinding it out.”

» See Page B4 for full Day 1 results.

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