The girls of Edwin Parr Composite’s senior high basketball team got an early Christmas present in the form of a top 10 provincial ranking.
The girls are currently ranked ninth among 3A schools in the province. That feat is made more impressive by the fact that last year the team never rose higher than 10th.
“Starting at nine is really good,” said head coach Wade Hicks. “Now we have to play up to that potential.”
Being ranked can be a blessing and a curse, according to the coach. While it recognizes the calibre of the local girls and their play, it also puts something of a target on their backs.
“Every week, people are gunning for you. That makes it a little stressful on the kids,” noted the coach.
“They know they need to play hard every game. They want to keep that ranking, if not improve on it.”
The Alberta Schools Athletic Association favours teams that get out and play a lot of games against challenging opposition. A team that plays it safe and stays within its own zone is less likely to be recognized than one that takes on teams from bigger schools.
“Going out and beating up on 1A and 2A schools doesn’t really help you in the long run. If you lose to a good 4A school, that’s better than beating a 1A,” explained the coach.
That’s one of the reasons why the EPC girls enter as many tournaments as they can, and they were in Spruce Grove for just such an event last weekend, where they came close to winning the whole thing; after wins over East Glen and Louis St. Laurent, they lost to Austin O’Brien by three points in the final game.
“They’re a pretty solid team,” said Hicks of the Edmonton group that bested his girls.
“They’ve got a couple of really good ball players on their team, but we matched up with them fairly well.”
The girls won’t dwell on the loss too much, as they know the game could have gone either way. And they have another tournament to think about, this weekend in Hinton.
“They’ve been getting better every time we step on the floor,” said Hicks. That bodes well for the future of their provincial ranking, according to the coach.
“A couple of the teams that are ranked ahead of us only beat us by six. We’ll be right in the hunt as long as we keep improving,” he said.
“The hard part is to make sure they don’t get complacent with where they’re at, that they want to strive to do better.”
The other girls teams are also getting their seasons started, with both the junior and JV girls competing.
“The junior high team looks like it’s going to be decent,” said Hicks.
Though he’s not coaching the JV team, he sees them on the practice court and thinks they have a good season ahead of them as well.
