Wagner Uses Strive to Become
Province’s Best
By Scott Taylor and Andrea Katz, Photos courtesy of FIT Communications
No one will argue with the numbers.
No one will say that James Wagner isn’t
the best CIS basketball prospect in
Manitoba.
After all, with 28 points and 17
rebounds in the championship game,
John Taylor’s 6-foot-7, James Wagner
was named the MVP of the AAAA
Provincial High School Basketball
Championships.
Wagner’s Pipers won that
championship game 84-63 over the
Garden City Fightin’ Gophers and as
his high school career came to a fitting,
provincial championship close, Wagner
had a new goal upon which to focus.
This fall, he will become a member of
Kirby Schepp’s University of Manitoba
Bisons.
“I was in Grade 3 when I started
playing basketball at KirkfieldWestwood Community Centre,” said
Wagner, who started the 2015-16 season
as the top ranked player in the province.
“I was always a little bit taller than most
of my friends but my dad is 6-foot-6 and
my mom is 5-foot-9, so I knew where I
get it from.”
Wagner’s dad, Ralph and mom
Marlene, were always supportive of
Wagner’s choice of sports and watched
him grow up with his friends, playing
basketball at Kirkfield-Westwood. Now,
however, he’ll move on to a tougher
challenge at the CIS level and he still has
all the support he needs.
Wagner is part of the STRIVE
Basketball Academy at United Therapies
STRIVE on Waverley in Winnipeg. There
he is coached by former University of
Winnipeg Wesmen star, James Horaska
whose father Rick was also a terrific
player at U of W.
James Horaska, who is a 6-foot-5
guard from Oak Park, played at U of
W from 2006-2012 and has a degree
in Kinesiology. He knows first hand,
the challenge that Wagner faces at the
University of Manitoba.
He also believes that Wagner is wellequipped to meet that challenge.
14 / sportslife
“We started STRIVE Basketball
Academy with 12 players last August,”
said Horaska. “They were from all
different schools and we wanted them
to be in the best condition, mentally
and physically, when we sent them into
the 2015-16 seasons. I guess you could
say it worked for James (Wagner).
“This year, we’ll go into our second
year of the Academy and we’d like to
have, ideally, 36 players – three groups
of 12. We’ll start in August and get these
young players ready for the new season.
“I first met James (Wagner) last
summer, but I ‘d already heard that
he had a bright future. What I found
was a really, really nice kid who has a
tremendous work ethic. He wants to be
the best he can be and as a result, he’s
now an example to the younger kids as
to what you can accomplish with hard
work and dedication to the program.”
Wagner loved his time at STRIVE so
much, he’s still there. In fact, we caught
up to him at the gym the other day.
“I played JV in Grade 9 and 10
because I wanted to stay with the
nucleus of guys I’d grown up with at
Kirkfield-Westwood,” Wagner explained.
“We decided to stay in JV as a group and
in 2013-14, we won the JV provincials.
The