Most of the players hail from Vanderhoof, with a trio of Fraser Lake residents mixed in for good measure.

So, considering the more than 10-hour bus ride they endured from Vanderhoof to Langley, the girls in purple "pinnies" had tougher sledding than most during the opening day of competition.

Their bus departed from Vanderhoof at midnight Wednesday and drove through the night, arriving at the Langley Events Centre at around mid-morning Thursday.

"We were very tired," recalled Taylor Desousa (Fraser Lake), following North West's BC Games-opening, 59-14 loss to Zone 2 Thompson-Okanagan early Friday morning at R.E. Mountain Secondary school. "We got, like, three hours of sleep."

Her teammate Maraya Cooper (Vanderhoof) had the luxury of traveling with her parents, but it didn't take the edge off the fatigue factor Thursday.

"That was still really tiring, too," she said. "I managed to get through the day, but at the end of the day I just crashed, I was so tired."

While North West isn't likely going to be a hoops powerhouse at the Games, most of the players agree their main focus is to improve while soaking in the experience.

"I hope to make lots of new friends, because that's basically the point, here, and learning lots of new skills, learning how to deal with pressure and stuff like that," Cooper said.

"We just want to try our hardest, do the best we can, hopefully get better," Desousa said.

For most of the players, being in Langley, with a population of 120,000, is like visiting the "big city." Vanderhoof, located about 100 kilometres west of Prince George, has roughly 5,000 living in its region.

Zone 7 player Cierra Verduzco (Vanderhoof) listed her town's restaurants: "We have the Cozy Corner Pizza... umm... Ricky's... I can't think of any more."