Edwin Parr Composite’s senior boys basketball team got their season off to a great start by winning a tournament in Boyle last weekend.
EPC coach Mark Francis actually split his team into two for the tournament; it was the senior team that won the event, but the second ‘junior varsity squad’ also performed well, notching a win over the host team.
The seniors also beat Boyle, as well as Riley and Westlock, to win the tournament.
The game against Riley was hard fought, and the EPC club was down two starters, but they managed to win 64-58. In the final against Westlock they took control early and kept the game in hand, holding on to the lead throughout.
The JV team, meanwhile, beat Boyle after losing their first game to Riley. Then they battled Notre Dame in the consolation final, going all the way to double overtime before losing 47-46.
“It was a real introduction for those kids to see the speed of the high school game,” said the coach.
The tournament came after the senior team had dropped a close decision (56-54) to Barrhead in a game at EPC last Wednesday. The teams traded the lead throughout the game, with Barrhead ultimately coming out on top.
“At the end of the day it’s the first game. Things that didn’t work in the first game will work in the third or the twentieth,” said Francis. “For some kids it was their first high school basketball experience. It’s about getting experience.”
If the boys were at all dissatisfied with the Barrhead game, they certainly bounced back on the weekend.
“It was an excellent start to the season,” said the coach. “Our three point shooting worked, our defense worked. All around it was a great tournament.”
This is the coach’s first year back behind the EPC bench after four years away (prior to which he had coached for a decade).
“It’s a completely new group of kids to me. It’s a very young team,” he explained.
As such, they need all the experience they can get, and they got no shortage of it in Boyle.
“With 15 guys playing six games, that’s a lot of minutes to be divided, and a lot of tired boys at the end,” said the coach. “Everyone got lots of time.”
They won’t have another tournament until the new year, but the team will busy itself with practices as well as a special alumni game on Dec. 20, in which EPC grads will return to play this year’s team.
