It was a fantastic weekend for the two R.F. Staples junior high basketball teams at their divisional tournament in Barrhead March 4-5.
Both squads brought home gold medals and earned a berth in the zone tournament slated for March 11-12 back in Barrhead.
James Kryskow coaches the girls team and said the season was a strong success even without the divisional win.
The girls went through their league schedule undefeated, he said, and entered divisions as the top seed.
After dispatching their first two opponents, RFS earned a date with their archrivals from Barrhead for the championship. It was a hard-fought game, Kryskow said, with the girls prevailing by a 25-10 score.
In the first half, the only points Barrhead was able to score came from free throws — a testament to how hard RFS worked on defence, he said.
Despite the margin of victory, Kryskow said his team struggled to score because the baskets were so hard to get.
With the divisional win, the girls earned the right to make the return trip to Barrhead March 11-12 to compete for the zone championship.
In order to play for the gold, the girls first had to get past Swan Hills and Neerlandia. The game against Swan Hills was not much of a challenge for the girls as they romped to a 48-2 win.
It was against Neerlandia where things got much harder.
The two teams were tied 10-10 at the half before RFS pulled away for a 24-12 victory and a date with Barrhead.
The season has been a welcome and rewarding one for many of the girls on the team, Kryskow said.
“It’s been good for this group of girls who have in the past had limited success in their junior high careers,” said the coach.
When try-outs were held at the beginning of the year, more than 40 girls came out.
That turnout was “fantastic,” Kryskow said, because in past years they had had trouble getting players to play.
To be part of a winning year and to see the girls develop as strong female players has been rewarding, he said, adding he enjoys coaching girls because they’re like sponges in that they want to learn more and keep improving.
