A pair of Grade 12 MEI students will be continuing their respective basketball journeys at the university level.
Bree Neufeld and Gabe Vig both announced the signings on social media on Wednesday (May 3).
Neufeld inked with the SFU women’s basketball program, while Vig will be joining the TWU Spartans.
Neufeld helped lead the Eagle to a strong regular season in the Eastern Valley Athletic Association 3A tier and went on to place second at 3A EVAA regionals. She was named an all-star at the regional event.
RELATED: Abbotsford basketball teams qualify for provincial tournaments
The second place showing qualified Neufeld and the Eagles for the 3A girls basketball provincial championship tournament in March. MEI placed sixth in the province at that event, with Neufeld having several impressive performances.
She joins an SFU program that finished sixth in the NCAA Div. II’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a record of 8-10. The club then fell Central Washington in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. SFU is the lone Canadian women’s basketball program to compete in the NCAA.
“Thank you to all the coaches that have made me the player I am today and for my family for always supporting and pushing me to be the best person I can be,” she stated on Instagram.
Vig led the Eagles to a 9-1 record and a first place finish during EVAA regular season action and the team went on to earn a 3A EVAA championship banner. That win qualified the Eagles for the 3A boys basketball provincial championship tournament.
MEI entered the tournament seeded 12th, but opened provincials with an upset win over the fifth-ranked Okanagan Mission Huskies. The Eagles eventually finished sixth in the province and Vig was named a first team all-star at the tournament. He collected 32 points in the fifth place game, which was a 95-92 win over the Byrne Creek Bulldogs.
Vig was also a key part of the Eagles at the 2022 3A boys basketball provincial championship tournament and helped that team place sixth in the province.
He joins a men’s basketball team at TWU that finished 12-8 in Canada West action in 2022-23, but fell to Calgary in the CW play-in game. The Spartans do have an Abbotsford connection, as head coach Trevor Pridie grew up in Abbotsford and was a former head coach at W.J. Mouat and an assistant coach with the UFV Cascades.
RELATED: MEI Eagles place fifth, Abbotsford Panthers finish eighth at basketball provincials