{"id":47782,"date":"2021-03-21T22:02:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T02:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=47782"},"modified":"2021-03-23T00:12:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T04:12:28","slug":"how-basketball-allstar-rachel-loukes-became-northern-bcs-top-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/how-basketball-allstar-rachel-loukes-became-northern-bcs-top-prospect\/","title":{"rendered":"How basketball Allstar Rachel Loukes became Northern BC\u2019s top prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, College Heights Secondary Grade 10 student Rachel Loukes was announced<\/a> as one of the province's\u00a0best high-school basketball athletes for next year from the north-central zone. Loukes said her success is attributed to hard work and persistence.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy work ethic comes from all my amazing coaches that I have been fortunate to have met in my life. I always set goals for myself on and off the court, whether that's trying this new shot, or getting as many reps in as I can or physically getting to a new weight set,\u201d said Loukes.<\/p>\n

Growing up, Loukes played a multitude of sports including badminton, golf, soccer and volleyball. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe beginning of high school in grade eight, I tried out for Team BC... and when I made it I was like \u2018oh wow this can really take me places,'\" said Loukes. She points to this as the moment she became invested in basketball as a sport, despite having talent in others.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sport has transformed Loukes\u2019 life beyond the competition, recognition, and accolades. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSports has definitely made a huge impact on my social life and being with basketball, specifically, I have been able to travel and interact with new cultures, new teams, and different styles of play and meeting new people,\" she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, COVID-19 created a different atmosphere for team sports. Loukes said she misses game play and travelling to play against other teams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But COVID-19 has allowed Loukes to work on other aspects of her game that she normally wouldn\u2019t have had the time to focus on. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it's always been trying to work on my mental aspect of my game,\u201d said Loukes about building confidence and becoming mentally stronger during COVID-19.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Four

Rachel Loukes pictured center, playing alongside her CHSS teammates. Photo courtesy of Rachel Loukes.<\/p><\/div>\n

Loukes has bright dreams for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing Zoom calls with Basketball Canada,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Loukes also wants to leave town to pursue her basketball goals and wants to try out for Team Canada as well.<\/span> Growing up surrounded by basketball stars, including her father who played professionally in Australia, and her older sister, Hannah, who has also made a name for herself in the basketball world, Loukes feels very fortunate to have supportive role models cheering her on. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI've always dreamt of the things they've done, and I really hope that I can be there one day as well,\" she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing how COVID-19 has changed the way team sports are and challenged player's motivation to continue on, Loukes advises other young athletes to \u201ckeep working hard and pushing yourself.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview at CFUR-FM:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, College Heights Secondary Grade 10 student Rachel Loukes was announced as one of the province’s\u00a0best high-school basketball athletes for next year from the north-central zone. Loukes said her success is attributed to hard work and persistence. \u201cMy work ethic comes from all my amazing coaches that I have been fortunate to have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":47806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,204],"tags":[5026,7412,7411],"radio":[238],"origine":[280,264,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47782"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=47782"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=47782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}