The R.F. Staples junior varsity girls team soared to gold at their home tournament over the weekend.
The tourney had 16 teams — eight girls and eight boys — battle on the court with R.F. Staples claiming the girls draw and Barrhead Composite High School coming out on top for boys.
“The gold medal was us and Sturgeon. We’ve played Sturgeon three times previously; we beat them two times in a round robin tournament and then once lost out in a gold medal game,” said coach Kirsten Brinks.
“It was the second time matching up with them in a gold medal match and we came out on top in two.”
The T-Birds were undefeated in Friday’s round robin and won each match in two on Saturday, beating out Hinton’s Harry Collinge High School in the quarterfinals, Barrhead Composite High School in the semifinals and Sturgeon Composite High School in the finals.
“Everyone contributed,” Brinks said. “I got every player to play, even in the gold medal match so it was a real rounded team effort.”
Despite the success this weekend, she said there are still improvements to be made.
“We’re working still on being more of a communicative team. They’re a little bit on the reserved side when they’re on the floor and we’re trying to coax that out of them,” she said.
Other than that, she said she thinks the teams effort was outstanding, with a solid lineup every match, especially the efforts of Kristen Jensen.
“Kristen Jensen was very hard for people to shut down,” she said. “She’d probably be the biggest arsenal on our team right now.”
Even when the team faced less of a challenge with less-experienced opposition, Brinks said she tried to keep the team on their toes.
“I moved a lot of the girls around and had them play different positions or try different things, so they made it challenging,” she said.
On the boys side, Barrhead Composite High School came out victorious, taking home the gold. They were followed by W.P. Wagner School from Edmonton and Redwater School.
The girls will take their game to Leduc’s Christ the King Oct. 28-29 to participate in a senior tournament, which should challenge them with tougher competition — something Brinks said the team is looking forward to.
