Dozens of athletes from the Cowichan Valley will travel north this weekend as the BC Summer Games take place in Nanaimo from Friday to Sunday.
The local athletes will be part of the Zone 6 (Vancouver Island-Central Coast) team at the huge event, where more than 20 different sports will be contested. Cowichan Valley athletes in towed water sports (including water skiing, wake skate and wakeboard) won't have to go far to participate as their events will be contested close to home on Duncan's Quamichan Lake from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 8:15-10:45 a.m. on Sunday.
Led by coach Jed Leech of Shawnigan Lake, the Cowichan Valley will have an impressive number of competitors in towed water sports, including Kyle Fredrickson, Todd Heard, Tyler Lindsay, Jake Metcalfe, Perry Desman, and Mason and Deklon Shadlock.
In athletics, the Cowichan Valley contingent will include Luke Armstrong, Miles Boulton, Emma Dewit, Sion Griffiths, Brendan Kirwin, Denise Roy and Emerald White, while Queen Margaret's School student Madison Heisterman is also taking part.
In baseball, the Valley will be represented by Cole Anderson, Robinder Dhut, Kale Eddy, Zach Waddington, Gus Wilson and Nicholas Yu.
Brendan Sullivan will compete in 5-on-5 basketball, while Jasmine Charles, Zjaya Doman and Milena Jolic will take part in 3-on-3. Five athletes from Youbou - Andrew Chester, McKayla Joseph, Kate-Lynn Lambert, Chantelle Tate and Thomas Zarelli Jr. - will compete in canoe/kayak.
Alice Young will ride in the equestrian competition, and Daelen Cleugh will ride in para-equestrian.
In box lacrosse, Marc Gagnon, Mathieu Jung, Isaiah McKinley, Lucas Nagel, Brian Robb and James Taylor will represent the Cowichan Valley, while Jack Chicquen, Colton Lidstone and Parker Teufel will compete in field lacrosse.
The massive Cowichan Valley rugby contingent includes Kyle Murdy, Reece Tudor-Jones, Nicholas Joe, Cooper Haz, Moses Gilbert, Dallin Foreman and Aidan McNutt in the boys tournament, along with Mariah Fontana, McKenna Haz, Hannah Morten, McKenzie Saysell and Avi Sharabi in the girls tournament.
Reece Fougner-Rukus, Sophie Miranda and Chloe Storie-Soth will represent the Valley in soccer; and Tayler Green and Demi Rose are members of the Zone 6 softball team.
Oliver Castle will take part in swimming, Tiegan McDevitt in para-swimming, and Clara Kodweiss in Special Olympics swimming.
Jeremy Kissack and Desirae Ridenour will carry the Cowichan Valley banner in triathlon, as will Danielle Groenendijk in volleyball, and Andrea Morris and Molly O'Donnell in wrestling.