Despite being a relatively small team, the Sundre High School senior girls’ basketball squad demonstrated substantial developmental growth throughout the past season, said the head coach.
“At the beginning of the season we started with a team of 13 girls, but due to illness, injury and other extra curricular commitments, that number dwindled as the season went on and we only had about seven to 10 girls for most practices and games,” Lisa Bloomer wrote in an email.
However, the core group was extremely committed to improving not only as individual players but also as a team, she said.
“Throughout the season, we worked a lot on developing plays and communication, and our zone defence developed to the point that we were able to frustrate and prevent really successful, high-scoring teams, such as Cremona, from being as successful as they had been in earlier games.”
They also focused on ball handling as well as rebounding, aspects of the game in which they achieved significant progress, she said.
“We were incredibly proud when during the last game we saw our forwards confidently bringing the ball up the court to beat the full court press that was intent on trapping our guards, and when our guards were confidently going in and rebounding against forwards almost twice their height.”
The Scorpions, who play in the Chinook’s Edge South Athletic Association division’s junior varsity league with teams from Olds, Cremona and Carstairs, wrapped up their season with a final playoff game on Tuesday, Feb. 12. A windup party followed on Thursday, Feb. 28 after the students’ winter break, the coach said.
In addition to regular league games, she said the girls also competed in a couple of senior varsity tournaments in Rocky Mountain House early in the season from Dec. 7 to 8 as well as another in Caroline Jan. 11-12.
“The girls played really well at the tournaments and learned a lot from competing against the senior teams.”
Finishing fourth overall in their division meant the Scorpions’ first playoff game was against the first-place team, Cremona.
“The girls played the best they had all season in that game and were leading until partway through the third quarter,” the coach said, adding, “They received high praise from the two Cremona coaches who were very impressed with how much they had improved throughout the season and were quite concerned that we would beat them out of their first place position.”
Bloomer said she was impressed by the team’s ability to always play with heart, along the way never throwing in the towel.
“They were always intent on improving,” she said.
“We were also impressed by their insightful feedback following games when we debriefed as to what they had done well and what our focus should be for upcoming practices and games.”
Coaching the girls was a privilege, said Bloomer, who led the team alongside assistant coach Allison French.
“We are very proud of how much they improved both individually and as a team throughout the season, regardless of their record.”
