The St. Mary Sharks had a tough run at their own tournament, going 0-3 at the W. J. Kallal Memorial Tournament at the Rotary Spirit Centre Feb. 10-11.
Hay Lakes won the gold medal, with St. Francis of Assisi taking silver and the Breton Cougars taking the bronze.
“We had the top team from central Alberta playing the top team from north-central Alberta in the final,” said boys head coach Darcy Romanuik.
While the Sharks didn’t get the results they wanted, Romanuik is focused on the positives.
“We played three games and we went to overtime twice,“ said Romanuik.
“We proved we can play with the upper echelon teams, but we’re shooting like a young team.
“There are a few things to work on. We didn’t get out-worked — we got out-skilled. That’s something a young team needs to fight through.”
He noted that the Sharks’ game plan was complicated by a number of injuries, which required them to shift gears on a number of fronts.
“In our final game, we really battled injuries,” he said. “We had one starter who might be gone for the year, he tweaked some ligaments in his ankle. Also, probably our most dominant defensive player injured his hip.”
While the losses were tough for the Sharks to swallow, Romanuik noted that it was all part of the rebuilding process.
“You can’t fault the kids for their efforts. We graduated five seniors last year,” noted the coach.
“You replace those five seniors with Grade 9s and 10s and you just don’t have the skill level yet.
“I think back to my seniors from last year, when they were in Grade 10 we took our lumps much like we are now, but when you play 1A basketball and you’re a small school every so often you have a rebuilding year and that’s just where we are right now.”
The Sharks are now back in the gym, sharpening their teeth for their next potential prey.
“A lot of it is execution,” he said.
“I like the boys effort and work ethic. We lost all three games by less than eight points. We’re there, our youthfulness just showed. As we get older and mature and get more experience battling adversity in the heat of the moment I think we’re going to get that much better.”
Both the Sharks boys and girls squads will head off to Hay Lakes for a tournament this weekend before the girls host their own tournament at the Rotary Spirit Centre Feb. 24-25.
