Marcie Schlick plays basketball at a higher level than the vast majority of her secondary school peers.
Part of the reason for that is her six-foot-four stature.
Her height helps a great deal playing a post position with the Duchess Park Condors, but it's her drive to succeed in a sport she's played for nine of her 17 years that has made her a hot commodity among university recruiters.
Within the next few days, Schlick will decide on scholarship offers to attend either the University of Calgary or UBC for next season. She already turned down similar offers from the University of Toronto and Waterloo. For now, the Condors are counting on Schlick as their beacon to guide them to provincial high school championship.
On Saturday in the final of the D.P. Todd senior girls tournament, Schlick scored a game-high 24 points in the Condors' 104-39 win over the Cedars Christian Eagles.
Basketball genes run in the Schlick family. Her mother Debbie (nee Richter) is a former Condor standout who played as a six-foot-one-and-a half post at UVic. Her sister Nicole, a six-foot-two post, now plays for the University of Waterloo, after one year at UNBC.
And the girls no doubt inherited some of their height from their six-foot-two father Michael.
"It's a huge advantage, but all my coaches always told me, 'Don't play big, even though you are big,' - you still need to be jumping and rebounding, you can't use your height as an excuse not to be working hard, and that's something I've tried to keep in mind," said Schlick. "I know I'm bigger than everyone, I know I can grab that rebound, but I want to push myself to do it in an athletic way."
Nicole graduated high school in 2011 and the Schlicks never played on the same Condor team, but her big sister's influence was obvious on Marcie, a member of the B.C. provincial team.
"Since I was little she's been my mentor and she's taught me lots of moves when we play in the driveway," said Marcie.
"She's always drilling me on post moves and she's always been a good role model for me. She's loving it down in Waterloo."
Marcie wants to stay closer to home when she moves up to the CIS, but Nicole continually tries to change her mind in her texts, referring to her as a future Warrior teammate. Marcie visited the university campuses in Waterloo and Toronto as a fly-in guest a few weeks ago.
"It's a lot of pressure to figure out what kind of coach I want, if I want to be going far away from home and especially what style of play (each team favours)," said Schlick. "It's hard but it's also a great time to playing right now. We have a really good team to help me work up to the next season and I'm really looking forward to the jump from high school to university."
Nicola Erickson, the Condors' five-foot-nine Grade 12 point guard, says having a big target like Schlick opens up endless possibilities in the offensive zone. Erickson says there's no other player in the North Central Interior who can match her ability to get to rebounds and put up blocks.
"Even if she gets the ball inside she'll pass it to you, and passing to her is pretty easy because you see her hands over everybody," said Erickson. "You can count on her to finish everything, she's a good shooter too. She can draw a lot of fouls with her height because people are always jumping on her."
Schlick has been working on the court with UNBC men's team assistant coach Dale Dergousoff, a former junior national team member who played professionally in New Zealand.
"Six-foot-four is hard to come by for girls and Marcie has people at all levels trying to recruit her and she's working hard with Dale to develop her game," said Condors head coach Catherine Erickson.
"She's working hard and of course I like that she's tall, and we're trying to capitalize on that against whoever we play. She's got the height and she just has to use that in every situation. Defensively, she should be able to block pretty much anything if she's watching the situation and doesn't get herself into foul trouble."
The Condors have two other Grade 12 starters - shooting guards Madison Landry and Alina Shakirova. Landry and Shakirova, who moved to Prince George from Russia a year ago, have committed to join UNBC, while Erickson is on the verge of signing with the T-wolves. Along with Schlick, they are the only returnees from last year's Condor team. Together, they form a dominant core for Duchess Park.
"It works good with the four of us - luckily we all play different positions so it's not like we're fighting for a position or trying to play a position we're not used to playing," said Erickson.
The Condors are ranked No. 3 among double-A teams in the province.
They started their season two weekends ago in Abbotsford at a University of the Fraser Valley triple-A tournament and finished second, losing by 24 in the final to the R.A. McMath Wildcats, the
No. 2-ranked triple-A team.
Schlick was limited to 11 points in the Condors' 80-25 semifinal win over the Prince George Polars, while Landry led the way with 16 points. Landry also had 16 in the final. Kyla Giesbrecht, with 18 points, and Jenna Van Delft, with 11, led the Eagles, who rank fifth in B.C. among single-A teams.
Last year the Condors were ranked first in the province throughout the season but lost by one bucket in the quarterfinal to Notre Dame, eventually finishing fifth. Eight seniors from that team have since graduated.
This year's senior Condor squad has four Grade 11s - Lezzyl Aquino, Isabel Zimmerman, Gabrielle Callier and Adrienne Rex - and two Grade 9s - Logan Cruz and Brynn Dergousoff. Al Erickson and Dave Fulks are the assistant coaches.
The Condors will be in action in the home gym on Friday at the Condor Classic playday. At 10:30 a.m. they'll face the Nechako Valley Viqueens (10th-ranked in double-A). Then at 2 p.m. they'll take on the College Heights Cougars, who won a tournament in Grande Prairie two weekends ago
