The 1998 Cambridge Girls Premier Division OBA Basketball Champions, above, included coach Jim Baird (back left), Melissa Mendicino, Angie Macleod, Katherine McColl, Kristin Dickenson, Danielle Everitt, Rachel MacGregor, and coach Dave Clipper. Front left: Becky Bryson, Stephanie Holtz, Dayna Seldentuis, Dawn Cressman, Nicole Consitt, and Anna James. Below: Cambridge Basketball Juvenile AAA girls won the provincial gold with team members: back left, coach Dave Clipper, Danielle Everitt, Dayna Seldentuis, Dawn Crossman, Mandi-May Bond, Lindsay Colven, Melissa Famme and coach Jim Baird. Front, left: Sam Boardley, Jen Kinder, Steph Holtz, Melissa Mendicino, Rachel MacGregor, Nicole Consitt and Angie MacLeod.

For two years, beginning in 1997, the nucleus of the Cambridge Juvenile girls AAA basketball team rose to the top echelons of basketball in Ontario, winning both the 1997 Juvenile Girls’ Ontario championship, and the following year, with many of the same players, the team captured the 1998 Premier OBA Championship.

Both teams were coached by Dave Clipper and Jim Baird and were top-ranked in the province (out of spproximately 60 teams). Said an Ottawa coach on the eve of the provincial tournement: “I hear it’s Cambridge and then the rest of the province.”

Coach Baird noted, “We’ve got a strong bench and the players are all very, very close-knit. This has probably been the most enjoyable team we’ve had.”

The team lost only three games all season, and two of those were to the Pennsylvania Lady Hoop Stars, one of the top-ranked teams in the U.S. In the previous two years the Cambridge Juveniles finished with silver medals at the provinicals.

Danielle Everitt had a superb championship game, scoring a gamehigh 26 points. She was named tournament MVP, while teammate Dayna Seldentuis won the Sportsmanship Award.

The team was named George Hill Team of the Year at the Cambridge Sports Awards.

The next season, as many of the girls moved up to the Cambridge Premier team, they were top-seeded going into the provincial championships. They won the title that weekend in Kingston with a 76-50 victory over the Weston Spartans. Everitt, who scored 25 points in the championship game, had a stellar tournament and was named tournament MVP. She averaged 23 points per game.