If you liked watching point guard Tyrell Laing light up the scoreboard with his long-range bombs and slice-and-dice layups this past season for the Prince George Polars, you're going to love the fact he's staying put in Prince George to play college basketball.
Laing has signed with the UNBC Timberwolves for the 2016-17 season, following in the tradition of other high-profile local high school hoops stars who have decided to ply their trade playing for their hometown team in the CIS Canada West university ranks.
"When I was growing up playing basketball, a lot of people said: 'You have to leave to try and make it,'" said Laing, in a UNBC release. "I'm just trying to switch the mindset for the young kids growing up.
"I want to be the first guy to take the plunge and say 'Hey, you can make it from where you're at, you don't have to go."
Actually, he's not the first. Not even close.
Dating back to the Timberwolves' origins playing in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association, UNBC has always shopped locally to try to build its sports programs. Names like Raju Korotana, Dana Larsen, Cory Antrim, Kevan Madsen, Haydn Molcak, Dennis and Daniel Stark come to mind as Laing's homegrown predecessors on the men's team.
Laing 's third and final last season with the Polars senior team did not end as successfully as he'd hoped. PGSS ran into a tough Duchess Park Condors team which stole their thunder, beating the Polars in the city league and North Central triple-A zone championships.
It wasn't for a lack of trying for the five-foot-11 guard. In the zone playoffs, Laing scored a season-high 56 points in a 75-70 semifinal loss to the Polars and the following day led his team again with 52 points in a 106-69 defeat in the zone final.
For three years, Laing distinguished himself as a City League and zone all-star at PGSS and he's heading into his fourth year playing for the B.C. provincial team. He was also part of the Junior Timberwolves program, where he first landed on UNBC's radar.
"I think that those experiences I've had playing in those high-pressure situations will help because I've had the opportunity to play against top-level competition," Laing told UNBC sports information officer Geordie Carragher. "I think that will carry over to the CIS well."
Laing's biggest challenge in adapting to university basketball will be to learn how to play defence against the bigger, stronger and wiser opponents he will encounter at the CIS level.
"Like any freshman, there will be an adjustment period that he needs to go through with the move to the next level, but he has a strong skill set to lean upon," said T-wolves head coach Todd Jordan. "I expect for him to compete to earn minutes as a first-year guy with our program."
Laing has long been a fan of UNBC basketball and was part of the rabid Northern Sport Centre crowd watching the Timberwolves on their way to a fourth-place finish at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national final in 2009.
"I remember watching those games and the players, Inderbir Gill, Francis Rowe, and multiple players on that UNBC team that made me really motivated to improve my game to hopefully one day be able to compete at that level just like them," said Laing, who plans to study geography at UNBC.
"It just seemed like a good fit. I think (Jordan) is going to be a coach who can maximize my potential as a player."
Laing is still a few months away from playing his first game for the T-wolves but he's not wasting any time preparing for that day.
"I made a promise to me and to my family that, this offseason, I'm going to be the hardest-working freshman guard in the country," Laing said. "I'm going to put in the work more than anyone else."
