The original 1931 Chinese Students Athletic Club |
It started with a keen interest in basketball and wound up helping integrate young Chinese Canadians. The Victoria Chinese Students Athletic Club story began in 1927, when boys from the Chinese Public School saw a Filipino basketball team play a local senior team. The enthusiasm the contest produced led the students to seek out practice facilities, and by 1931, the school's first team was formed - they won a city title that inaugural year.
Formation of the club quickly followed and its teams competed on and off in softball, soccer, table tennis and bowling between the 1930s and 1970s.
Basketball was a constant for the VCSAC, which earned its last crown in 1978 when a Midget boys team won the city championship.
The Seaspray/Waxmen lacrosse team. |
Field lacrosse has had an up-and-down history in Greater Victoria.
Largely replaced by box lacrosse in the 1930s, it resurfaced with the emergence of the Victoria Seasprays in 1980. The squad was part of a five-team B.C. league formed to promote the sport and prepare Western players for a shot at making Canada's team for the 1982 world championships.
Listing numerous Shamrocks on the roster, the club placed eight players on the 1982 national team. The team, later called the Payless and the Royal Waxmen, won championships in B.C. (eight titles), the Western U.S. (six titles) and Canada (four), going 142-3 through 1988.
Along the way were seven undefeated seasons, a string of 75 straight wins, and eight U.S. college scholarships earned.
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