This year's Broncos women's basketball team isn't quite like last year's.
That team raced out to a 9-0 start to the ACAC season and took bronze at the provincial championship.
As the conference breaks until the new year, this year's squad holds a 3-6 record and sits sixth in the South division.
Head coach Reg Carrick admits his team is struggling to replace the star power they had last year in guards Marie Lupe and Danesia Williams and post players, Renetha Burton and Jasmine Williams.
“We're not the most talented team in the conference so we have to show up and play hard every night. We're just trying to get a consistent effort every night,” he said after a 78-66 loss to the St. Mary's University College Lightning on Nov. 27.
The Lightning won the rematch in Calgary, 70-54.
Carrick says they haven't played like a medal contender, or even a playoff team.
If that's going to change, the Broncos must hustle.
Aside from the eye test, it's difficult to quantify how hard a team plays. Basketball offers a number from which you can make inferences about effort – rebounding – and one player who's done lots of it this year has been third-year post player Melanie Thera.
“It's a hustle stat. If you want to get better at rebounding, you've just got to work for it,” she said. “I'm getting more aggressive on the boards. I just want the ball and I'll do whatever it takes to get it.”
This season, Thera, studying business administration, set an ACAC rebounding record by collecting 15 offensive boards against the Red Deer College Queens. The same game, she tied the conference record for total rebounds with 24.
Against the Lightning on Friday night, she came close to breaking it, recording 21 rebounds.
Carrick remembers a raw athlete when she first joined the team.
“That kid couldn't play in her first year. She wasn't very good. I say that with a little grain of salt,” he said with a wry smile.
“She decided she was going to make herself into a basketball player. Three years later, she's one of the best post players in this conference and she's got CIS schools calling her. Mel is a testament to what we can do with a kid if we keep them for three years.”
Said Thera about the coaching staff, “They're pushing me to be my best so I hope our team just keeps on improving.”
There's time for that, until Jan. 15, when the unofficial second half of the season resumes.
"We're not the most talented team in the conference so we have to show up and play hard every night." REG CARRICK
