The “B.C. Boys”: Jack Vandenberg and Bibbings

The rookies brought their positive vibes from Vancouver to Montreal

BY MARIA BOUABDO // SPORTS EDITOR

On July 27, 2022, Jack Vandenberg flew out from Vancouver to Montreal. The following day, Griffyn Bibbings followed, and the two were probably the only students at Concordia’s campus residence for the next few weeks.

The two British Columbians — Vandenberg, point guard from Central Vancouver, and Bibbings, forward from West Vancouver — bonded and started a friendship that earned them the nickname “B.C. Boys” from their teammates.

“When we got here, he was probably the first person I met,” Bibbings said about Vandenberg. “It was the morning after I landed, and because we’re both from B.C., we’re both on res [residence] as well. So we kind of do everything together. Our teammates just call us ‘B.C. Boys,’ and they just mean me and Jack.”

“Coaches have mentioned a few times, they don’t really see us without each other,” Vandenberg added. “Because we have a similar schedule apart from classes. It’s just practice, and then we go eat, and then we go back to the res [residence].”

Although the two rookies were both only 18 years old at the time, they didn’t feel that moving to a new city on their own was intimidating or particularly difficult to navigate.

“At no point was I just in my room not knowing a single person or not knowing what to do,” said Bibbings. “The morning after I got here, I met him [Vandenberg]. I probably met like 20 people on the first day. So it wasn’t really that hard.”

Vandenberg and Bibbings had the chance to meet the rest of the team at practice before the exhibition games against NCAA teams in August.

They acknowledged that being part of a team can definitely make moving across the country a lot easier.

“I feel like in our situation, it might be a little different than most,” Vandenberg explained.

“Because when we came here we had the support of the coaches, teammates, like we already kind of had a friend group going into it with our teammates.”

Although the pair only

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