There remains a big learning curve on the road ahead for both Edwin Parr Composite senior high school basketball teams.
It was evident the youth of the senior girls and the relative inexperience of the senior boys squad were factors in the results of their home invitational tournament this past weekend – the girls placing fourth and the boys ending up eighth.
For the girls, they got out of the blocks with a very confident 57-20 win over Drayton Valley on Friday. Brianna Kennedy led the way with 16 points followed by Dani Panylyk with 13.
Unfortunately, the scoring touch left the girls in their A-side semifinal on Saturday against Cold Lake, where they shot an abysmal 20 per cent from the free throw line and from the field.
The third-place game later in the day didn’t go any better for the Predators, losing to Eastglen from Edmonton and making less than 20 per cent of their shots.
The girls head coach Wade Hicks isn’t certain why things turned around from one day to the next, but feels part of it may stem from having half his roster being Grade 10s and they still may be trying to gather their legs under them at this level.
However, Hicks also knows his team will be better in the end for having gone through this.
“I thought it was a good lesson for my young team to learn that the ball isn’t always going to fall and we need to find other ways to score sometimes,” he stated after some reflection on the weekend’s events.
“I don’t think losing those two games was a step back for us, I think it is good to have those games early in the year and learn from them.”
While the home tournament is the big showcase for the club, it is also very early in the season and Hicks acknowledged this isn’t the time to panic for his team.
“We are going to hit it hard in practice this week and start to learn how to concentrate and finish,” Hicks said.
“We are striving to peak at the end of February and I’m very encouraged with our start.”
Hicks added he is also looking forward to getting the team down to San Diego later this month, during the holiday break, for the club’s annual trek south of the border to play in a tournament and get in some team bonding activities such as an a college basketball game and Disneyland.
For the boys, they took it on the chin this weekend, losing all three of their games to Drayton Valley, Cold Lake and Edson by significant margins.
While several players definitely have the skills, the inexperience showed. And with also having three new coaches taking over a little more than a week ago, it’s going to take some time to come together.
“We have a lot of new faces coming up to play at a more competitive and skilled,” said Jesse Snow, one of the new coaches.
“This team has a lot of potential and hopefully by the end of the season, we will be able to compete with the rest of the competition in our zone.”
