There were tears after the Brookswood Bobcats won the district championship, but not from the players or coaches.
The tears came after the seven-year-old daughter of head coach Kelsey Stewart accidentally broke the championship trophy.
But all that mattered was that for the first time in nine years, the Bobcats had captured the Grade 8 boys Langley district championship.
The ’Cats defeated Langley Christian 38-28 at Langley Christian School on Friday afternoon.
Brookswood was down 12-2 after one quarter as the team struggled offensively, missing several easy shots.
“Once one (shot) went in, they started going in,” Stewart said. “The guys loosened up a little bit.”
Evan Kim led the team with strong defence and rebounding. And with the opposition focused on stopping the big man from beating them, that opened things up for Jamie Cameron and Angelo Morales, who led the way offensively.
Brookswood was the fourth seed heading into the district playoffs while the Lightning were third. Both teams were 6-3 but Stewart said the league was very competitive this year as two of the ’Cats losses were by a combined four points.
“The league was really tight this year,” he said. “They were seven good teams.”
In the semifinals — which were played earlier in the day on Friday — Cameron hit a free throw with 20 seconds left to help Brookswood knock off No. 1 Walnut Grove 48-47. Walnut Grove had won the past eight Grade 8 boys district championships.
Morales also had a big game with 26 points, including four three-pointers. One of those three’s came with a minute left to give Brookswood the lead.
At the start of the season, Stewart was not sure what to expect.
“We had a bunch of kids who had already played with our club system, the South Langley Basketball Club, but we weren’t too sure how they were going to be,” he said.
This season was also a reversal of the year before when Brookswood was tops in the league but finished fourth at the district championships.
In the third-place game, Walnut Grove defeated Stafford.
All four teams are competing this week at the Fraser Valley championships.