She has played her last game for the UNBC Northern Timberwolves. But, Christine Kennedy may not be done with the green and gold quite yet.
Kennedy, the lifeblood of the local women's basketball team for the past two seasons, would like to make more contributions to the program in the future.
These ones would be from the sidelines.
"I'm hoping that my time at UNBC isn't over," said Kennedy, a scrappy and skilled point guard who was in her fifth and final year of playing eligibility this season. "I hope one day I can come back with some coaching experience under my belt and help out.
"I want to get the Basketball B.C. first level [coaching certification] and [UNBC head coach] Loralyn [Murdoch] has been through everything and said she'll tell me what I need to do," added Kennedy, who is working on a masters degree in psychology at UNBC. "I really do enjoy my psychology work and right now I might lead into sports psychology, which would really help with a coaching career as well. So I don't know what the future really holds but I can't imagine not learning about basketball and that's why I really need to get into coaching to learn the other side of it."
Even though she is small in stature, the five-foot-three Kennedy reached impressive heights as a player. In the summer of 2005, straight out of College Heights secondary school, she cracked the roster of the McGill Martlets, a Canadian Interuniversity Sport team based in Montreal. By her second season, she was McGill's starting point guard and was among the Quebec Division leaders in scoring, assists and steals.
Kennedy spent three seasons with the Martlets and remembers that period of her playing career as both challenging and educational.
"Playing at the CIS level, it's very different than the college level just in that the size of the girls is so much bigger and the aggressiveness is so much crazier," Kennedy said. "I think that will help me in my future when I'm coaching because I think aggressive practices are very, very important to win championships. I think that's what I'll take from it -- just seeing all those players and seeing what it really does take to win a championship."
Kennedy returned to Prince George so she could be closer to her family and that decision benefited the UNBC women's basketball program in a huge way. In 2009-10, "C.K." led the Timberwolves to a 17-1 record and a regular-season championship in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association. She was named player of the year in the BCCAA and also earned an All-Canadian award.
This season, the Timberwolves went 13-5 in the regular schedule and won a bronze medal at the provincial championship tournament. For her work in the regular season, Kennedy was picked as a BCCAA second-team all-star. In playoffs, where the Timberwolves beat the Vancouver Island University Mariners 62-54 for bronze on March 5 in Abbotsford, she again received all-star recognition.
Kennedy appreciated the individual awards but she was always the type of player who put the team ahead of herself. Quite simply, being part of a team is what she valued the most.
"I've learned so much in the past few years about teamwork and about attitude and about heart and about hard work," she said. "I couldn't trade any of those experiences. I'm going to have those girls as part of my family hopefully forever. They better not forget about me."
It's safe to say, they won't.
"It was amazing playing with her," said rookie UNBC guard Jenn Knibbs, recruited to be Kennedy's successor in the backcourt. "She's such an inspiration. She made everybody better, pushed everybody."
-- The UNBC men's basketball team will leave Prince George on Tuesday morning, bound for Oshawa, Ont. There, the Timberwolves will compete in their third consecutive Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship tournament. The first game for the T-wolves is Thursday against the Lethbridge College Kodiaks.
The Citizen's coverage begins Tuesday.
