Just because you haven't heard from the University College of the Fraser Valley women's basketball team since the season ended doesn't mean that they're not still making noise.

During a season in which the Cascades went a perfect 22-0 in B.C, head coach Al Tuchscherer found time to squeeze in a few recruiting visits to some of the top talent in the Fraser Valley . Those trips seem to have paid off as Tuchscherer can lay claim to what is most likely the top recruiting class in the league.

With the signings of six-foot Deanna Macrae, the AAA Provincial Championship Tournament MVP and her Earl Marriot teammate, five-foot-ten Olivia Hunt, a tournament First Team All Star, the rich get richer. It's hard to imagine a team as dominant as last year's version of the Cascades could be improved upon, but Tuchscherer believes it is a possibility.  

Just consider that Macrae and Hunt join an already impressive list of signees such as point guards Leah Garrigus from Westview and Natasha Younker from Chilliwack, forwards Baj Chohan from Abbotsford Senior and Ashley Teister from Thomas Haney, and wing players Alicia Borsoi from Prince Rupert and Laura Hallinan from Chilliwack.

Macrae and Hunt have enjoyed success on every level, usually on the same team, and most recently as AAA Provincial Champions. Garrigus, a five-foot-four point guard, was the Best Defensive Player at this year's AA Provincial Tournament and a participant in the B.C Basketball All Star game. At five-foot-six, Natasha Younker is a point guard who loves to push the ball up the court, and she was a member of the Chilliwack Tillicums, who finished in fourth place at the AAA Provincials. Chohan, the local five-foot-nine speedster, was a Fraser Valley All Star and Teister, at five-foot-eight, is an undersized but tough power forward who was relatively unheralded but has thoroughly impressed the coaching staff with her combination of savvy and strength.  

Borsoi, who will join the team in July, is a long five-foot-eleven wing player who loves to play defense and proved it by winning the Northwest Zone Defensive Player of the Year honours. Finally, Hallinan, a Chilliwack teammate of Younker, and Fraser Valley All Star, is a six-foot-two jewel with an all around game that ranges from the three-point line down into the paint.  

"All these new kids are really excited," says Tuchscherer. "They're working hard in the gym every day." As a coach, Tuchscherer sees not only where these players are now but also where they can be down the road. "I can see where this team can be, but it's going to take a lot of work."  

Tuchscherer recently took a squad comprised of Hallinan, Garrigus, Teister, and Younker, along with veteran guards Shiloh Minor, Kalisha Reid, sniper Estee Clifford, and reigning BCCAA and CCAA Player of the Year, Lauren Alonzo, on a tour of Vancouver Island . They found themselves matched up against competition ranging from league rival Malaspina College of Nanaimo and an Island high school All Star team, to a University of Victoria crew that featured two returning starters from last year's CIS National Champions.  

While Tuchscherer points out that he doesn't put a lot of stock in offseason exhibition games, he couldn't help but notice the way his team went undefeated on the trip, including a breakout game for Alonzo against UVic's six-foot-five and six-foot-two twin towers.  

Though Tuchscherer tries to downplay the importance of his team's strong showing, he can't help but comment on Alonzo's performance against the tough competition. "[UVic] had been just killing everybody, and basically Lauren put on a show like I haven't seen for quite some time. She just took it to them," says Tuchscherer.  

The team continues to play in exhibition games throughout the summer as the coaching staff tries to mold this radically different lineup into a force that could once again contend for a national championship, a prize that has so far eluded the Cascades.  

With already dominant frontcourt players like Alonzo and Jamie Born focusing on strength and conditioning this offseason, and former Yale Lion Clifford finding the confidence to go along with her sweet shooting stroke, Tuchscherer believes that this could be a big year for UCFV. "Who needs to rebuild when you can just reload?" he says.