Photo: Spencer McKay

Summerland local celebrates joining university basketball team. Left to right, Matthew Raimondo (HC of Summerland Sr. Boys), Dezi Ducheck, Spencer McKay, and Chris Terris.

For the first time in decades, a Summerland boys basketball player has signed with a top university league in Canada.

High-school senior Dezi Ducheck has earned a spot on the Mount Royal University Cougars basketball team in Calgary.

Not only has Ducheck been named the first All-Star at the Senior Boys Provincial tournament—where his team finished second in the province— he was also named Top 50 high school players in the country.

Head Coach Spencer McKay from Lake City Basketball said he had the pleasure of teaching Ducheck when he was on the U17 team, describing him as a "really tough competitor."

"He competes in every drill we do. He competes in every game. He never gets down on himself or his teammates," McKay said.

"He's the first kid in our program since I've been here in Penticton for the last seven years, whom I have endorsed as a player. I'm not going to endorse anybody unless I'm 100 per cent sure they're going to be successful wherever they go."

The six-foot-three point guard averaged 32 points per game for the Summerland Secondary School Rockets, helping the team to a record of 32 wins and one loss and winning the Okanagan Valley Zone Championships.

McKay said he reached out to his own contacts in the USports world, having played basketball at the University of Victoria before joining the national team, and then onto 16 years of professional basketball overseas.

He coached at UBC in Vancouver for six years before coming to the Okanagan.

"[Ducheck] being from a small town, it's hard to get noticed. And a lot of the university coaches are looking at kids from bigger schools and obviously taller players," McKay added.

"Every single player on these university teams is handpicked."

After MRU's head coach saw a video of Ducheck playing from McKay, he was immediately on board.

Ducheck's mother is Joanne Malar, a three-time Olympian in swimming, so being an all-star athlete runs in the family.

"I just can't wait to watch him play, and I can't wait to watch him over the next five years and see how that program does, and see how he fits into it."

Ducheck was the fourth signing in the 2025 recruiting class and will join MRU come fall.

Photo: Contributed

Local Athlete Makes Calgary University team