It has been a good year for the Barrhead Composite High School Gryphon Boys basketball team.
On the weekend of March 14 they won the provincial championship qualifying tournament in Morinville.
Even if the Gryphons hadn’t won the provincial tournament, head coach Bill Knudsen said he would have considered the season a success.
Last weekend, the Gryphons travelled to Fort McMurray to compete for the 3A Alberta Provincial High School Basketball Championship where they finished in 7th place, sporting a two win - one loss record. Cole Knudsen was awarded with the Sportsmanship award for the tournament.
“I am really proud of the season we had,” Knudsen said, adding that at the beginning of the year he knew the team had the potential to become a strong team.
“We really had a good mix of players. About half of our team were returning players and the other half were new to the team,” he said.
Of those new players, three of them were totally new to the sport, at least at the competitive level.
Although Knudsen said he, like many others, was saddened when he heard that the Steelers hockey team didn’t have a regular league to play in, their loss was the Gryphon’s gain.
“We had a couple of the Steelers, Nathan Schmidt and Brad Bujold, as well as a volleyball player who had not played basketball for a number of years, join our team and they all did a really good job for us,” he said.
At the end of the regular season, the team sported a record of 24 wins with two losses. The Gryphons also won four tournaments.
“We really matured as a team and the players worked very hard to improve not only their individual skills, but their team skills.” Knudsen said, adding that the zone tournament was a great example of how far the team progressed over the season.
“All our victories were sizeable and every one of our players contributed to the team’s success and it was great to see,” he said.
However, perhaps the thing Knudsen is most proud of, besides their play on the court, is that the team has received a lot of attention at the provincial level.
Four times during the basketball season the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA) ranks all the top teams in the province.
Two times the Barrhead Gryphons Boys basketball team received honourable mentions and one other time the ASAA ranked Barrhead in 10th place.
In the latest ASAA rankings, after the provincial zone qualifying tournaments across the province, the Gryphons have moved up to seventh place.
“It is a real accomplishment, especially for a small school, to be ranked by the ASAA, and a real testament to the type of season we are having,” he said.
