The Olds High School junior boys' and Olds Koinonia Christian School junior girls' basketball teams swept their respective slates at the Chinook's Edge Junior A Basketball tournament Friday and Saturday at the Ralph Klein Centre.
Both teams ended the tournament with perfect 3-0 records, with the Spartans beating HJ Cody High School 42-27, Innisfail Junior-Senior High School 63-25 and Spruce View School 69-11, while the Royals beat IHS 51-17, Fox Run school 52-12 and Spruce View 58-13. Because the tournament featured a total of 10 boys teams and nine girls teams, no playoff round was played.
Ron Miller, the Spartans' coach, said the boys played well.
“They had a good tournament and all the boys contributed. I got to say that I'm very proud of the way the boys worked this weekend, they worked all the way through the games and you have to do that,” he said.
In the Spartans' final game against Spruce View, several scoring drives featured three or four players passing the ball crisply around the key to find the open player before sinking the field goal. Miller said he designed the play and had the players practise it between games and it worked well.
“That's what I like about these guys. They're smart enough and athletic enough that they can pick up a play and they can try it and they can see that there's potential for those things, they'll keep working at it,” he said.
The Royals also had a good tournament, improving over the tournament they attended two weeks ago at the RKC, said coach Donna Reed.
“I was very pleased with my team because they learned to play as a team, they were looking for each other. They did much better passing, not being selfish players – much improved as far as just knowing where each other was on the court, and being able to play cohesively,” Reed said.
Meanwhile the girls' counterparts at OKCS finished the tournament with a 2-1 record, beating Spruce View 48-20, beating River Glen 37-21 and losing to Delburne 61-22.
“Spruce View was a really good game for the guys. They came out really pumped and anything they were told to do they listened. (Saturday), they just seemed to be tired,” said Aaron Lafferty, the team's coach.
On Saturday, the team was missing three of its key players, Sam Colby, Spencer Parrott and team captain Luke Wiebe. The result was a tired group, and it showed in the loss to Delburne, Lafferty said.
The OHS girls finished with a 2-2 record, beating Fox Run 35-7, beating IHS 38-30, losing to Delburne 32-30 and losing their final game to HJ Cody 64-24. Co-coach Kelvin Beaudry said in addition to the three Saturday games, some of the girls fit in hockey games as well, making it a busy day for them.
“They gave their all and had nothing left in the end. They didn't hold back. Saw a lot of very positive things throughout the tournament and really looking forward to what January and February will bring to us,” he said, noting that team cohesion has been really good thus far.
Co-captains of the Spartans, Janelle Owens and Nicole Shultz, have shown excellent leadership thus far, Beaudry said.
Owens said she felt each game in the tournament was better than the last one.
“I feel like … we got better with each game. We got a lot of things thrown at us, with harder teams and new plays and we've done well,” she said.
"That's what I like about these guys. They're smart enough and athletic enough that they can pick up a play and they can try it and they can see that there's potential for those things, they'll keep working at it."Ron Miller, coach, OHS junior boys basketball team
