There's no knowing what will transpire during the PacWest Basketball Championships running Thursday through Saturday at Capilano University except for this one undeniable truth: the Errico family will end up in tears.
"There will be tears, good or bad," confirmed Michelle Errico, a fifth-year guard who is ending one of the most prolific basketball careers in Capilano history.
"She'll cry, and then I'll cry, and then mom will cry, and then dad will cry," added Sherrie Errico, Michelle's younger sister who is a second-year player for the Blues. "Everyone will cry."
The Blues, ranked No. 3 in the province, will be hoping to move up to claim gold on their home court and, if they do, the Errico sisters will likely play a huge part. They've already done a lot to get the team to this point, with Michelle leading the team in scoring with 14 points per game while shooting a robust 37 per cent from behind the three-point line.
Sherrie, meanwhile, has played big minutes for the team both as a starter and off the bench, also shooting the ball well from three and pitching in with points, rebounds and assists from her wing position.
Sherrie's biggest assist, however, may have come during the offseason when she helped convince Michelle to come back to Capilano for a fifth and final year. The Errico family believed that last year's provincial quarterfinal loss was Michelle's last ever collegiate game. Sherrie, who was a first-year player at the University of Victoria at the time, watched Michelle play that final game and saw the tell-tale tears.
"I could see in her last game it was super emotional, she was like bawling her eyes out," said Sherrie. It was around that time that a plan was born: Sherrie would leave UVic, where she was a bench player before being sidelined by injury, and come to Capilano to play one glorious season with her older sister.
"I knew that if I didn't play (at Capilano) this year, Michelle probably wouldn't play this year," said Sherrie. "She just loves basketball, I wanted her to have another year. I've always wanted to play with her. I went to UVic last year, loved UVic but kind of felt bad at the same time, I wondered if I would regret it if I never played with Michelle."
Michelle, who had one foot out the door at Capilano, turned right around when Sherrie told her that she wanted to come home.
"Because Sherrie wanted to play I was like, let's go for it," said Michelle. "I'm only 23, I've got tons of time to get a job and do all that kind of stuff, I might as well play out my years. It's something that's really important to me."
The sisters grew up in a sports-mad family in North Vancouver's Seymour area. Older sister Leslie got the ball rolling in a junior basketball league with Michelle soon following. Sherrie has a twin sister Nicole who also got in on the act, although as the years passed it was Sherrie and Michelle who formed the tightest basketball bond. Their father slapped a backboard onto a wooden post on their driveway. It wasn't pretty but it was home to countless games of one-on-one or 21.
"Our driveway is on a slant and the basketball hoop was slanted," said Michelle with a laugh.
"Maybe it made us a bit stronger having to shoot uphill," said Sherrie, adding that she was inspired by the things Michelle could do on a basketball court. "I would always watch her games when I was younger. ... I just wanted to be like her."
With their age difference - Michelle is now 23 and Sherrie 20 - they never got to play together on an official team before this season, but now that they are on the same squad they are closer than ever. The two are quite similar on the court, filling out the two wing positions with Michelle relying on her sharp three-point shot and Sherrie going to pull-up jumpers a little more frequently. The league knows all about Michelle - who ended her regular season career last Friday, finishing with the fifth most points in PacWest history - but this year she's had a bit more breathing room on the nights that her sister gets hot, she said.
"On nights where Sherrie goes off like that they have no idea what to do," she said. "They've got to decide who they're going to guard. ... They'd be really close on me and then Sherrie would score. And then they'd close out on Sherrie a little tighter and I'd be a bit more open."
The sisters are closer than ever off the court as well.
"I think that playing with Sherrie has made this year so much fun, I'm excited to go to practice all the time, I'm excited for games," said Michelle. "We take classes together!" "We spend too much time together," said Sherrie with a laugh. "It's definitely brought our relationship closer. We've always been close, but now if we get in a fight it can't last because we have to forget about it on the court. If we hate each other before practice, after practice it's like, 'Ohh, I love you!'" That the Blues are hosting the provincials this year makes this final season even sweeter for Michelle.
"I'm so excited," she said. "I'm so happy that it's my fifth year and I get to host it at Cap. It's really exciting for me, and we definitely play a lot better at home. ... It would be the best way that I could go out. I want to win. And we totally can do it. We have the team to do it."
Sherrie, for one, is all fired up about getting the opportunity to send her sister off into the sunset with a PacWest medal.
"Obviously I really want to win, but the fact that it's Michelle's last year, it really makes me want to win," she said. "I just want it so bad for her. She's put in so much work, so much energy for the team. I know she wants it, and that I can be there to help her just makes me super happy. ... Either way she'll cry at the end of the game."
"I'm crying a little right now!" said Michelle.
The Capilano women will play No. 6 Camosun in the PacWest quarterfinals Thursday starting at 6 p.m. at the Capilano Sportsplex.
The No. 4 Capilano men will follow at 8 p.m. against No. 5 Douglas College. Updates: pacwestbc.ca/championships/basketball.
