Kayla Gordon has the fight of a Spartan inside her.
The Cedars Christian Eagles volleyball and basketball player accepted a scholarship offer to join the Trinity Western University Spartans basketball program beginning in September 2013.
"I really feel I can fit well into their program and I love the coach [Cheryl Jean-Paul], she's just awesome," said Gordon about signing with TWU last week, a week after she visited the campus. "I just see a future there. Academically that school is amazing and one of my dream schools I could go to and with a basketball scholarship I can finally be able to afford it."
The 17-year-old admits she'll be torn this weekend when her future Spartan teammates are in Prince George to face the UNBC Timberwolves in the first Canada West action at the Northern Sport Centre for a pair of games, Friday and Saturday.
"I'm definitely going to be there at those games," said Gordon. "It was a very difficult decision choosing TWU over UNBC because I do have a connection with UNBC with Loralyn [Murdoch] and everything she's put into me as a player. It was really hard [breaking the news to the T-wolves coach] but we had talked about it and I think she had kind of known.
"It is going to be fun to see my team play," smiled Gordon.
The dual-sport athlete at Cedars said it was an easy choice to choose basketball over volleyball.
"Basketball is my main sport, it's what I train for and I do enjoy it a little bit more," said Gordon, who plays forward. "And, volleyball kind of hurts my back."
Gordon is the captain, and only Grade 12 member, of the Eagles volleyball team that moved from fourth to second in the single-A rankings since September, moving up after an 11th place finish at the Best of the West tournament in Kelowna.
Before finishing with the silver medal at the D.P. Todd secondary tournament last weekend, Gordon and the Eagles finished fifth at an all-Christian school tournament in Abbotsford the weekend before. The Eagles will host the north-central zone volleyball championship, Nov. 16-17.
Gordon said the most difficult part of zones will be keeping focused against teams that play differently than the triple- and-double-A competition the Eagles are accustomed to facing.
"It's going to be hard because the teams are a little bit lower level then we're used to playing but if we just stay clean and not play down to their level I think we have a really good chance at gold," she said.
But it's the girls basketball season Gordon is really looking forward to. After two years of being the second-best single-A team in British Columbia the Eagles will have an opportunity to finally win gold when they host the provincial tournament in March 2013. The Houston Christian Wildcats stood in the Eagles way at the provincial championship the past two seasons but the northwest school lost several players to graduation last year.
Eagles volleyball coach Martin Pudlas said the Spartans basketball program is getting a hardworking player that everyone likes.
"She's like a big sister to all the girls and she gives the girls some confidence in terms of having that type of an athlete on the team," said Pudlas.
Gordon said she plans to study corporate communications - half business and half communications - at TWU, but she's torn about whether to go into broadcast journalism or into public/media relations.
