Edwin Parr Compositeís junior varsity girls basketball team made their school proud by winning the zone championships on the weekend.
For the second consecutive year, the JV girls emerged as the best team at the event, overcoming tough competition to do so, according to head coach Janelle Tarrant.
The event was held in Morinville and the girls played three games in total.
In their first game against Westlock, the girls worked together as a team to hand their opponents a 57-33 defeat.
ìThat was one of the best games that we played all season,î said the coach. ìWe played really hard as a team.î
In the zone tournament, points scored were a big factor in the standings, so scoring nearly 60 points in their first game put the girls in a great position.
In their next game against Barrhead, their goal was to either win the game or lose by a slim margin in order to keep that point advantage. Suffering from a slow start, the EPC girls fell behind early, but ultimately fought back in the fourth quarter and lost the game by one point. But because they had scored so many points in their first game, they still advanced to the championship game.
There they met Edson for a game that would determine the zone champion. The teams had no prior knowledge of each other going in to the game, putting them on even footing.
ìWe had no idea what we were up against,î said the coach.
All the JV Predators knew was that there was a lot on the line, so they played hard and brought their best effort onto the court. As a result they stayed out in front of Edson all game, securing the win and the zone banner.
ìWe knew what we had to do; we had to play hard to make sure we brought that banner back to EPC, and they did that,î said Tarrant, who noted that the team overcame some struggles early in the season to become the cohesive unit they were at zones.
City tournaments early in the season didnít go so well for the team and got them down on themselves, but they continued to work and ultimately proved to be a great team.
ìItís been quite fun watching them grow,î she said. ìThings started to click and they really clicked (at zones).
ìI think they were pretty confident that we were going to win.î
