The St. Mary Sharks put up a good effort, but could not defeat their rivals from Parkland in the gold-medal match of the W.J. Kallal tournament at the Shark Tank last weekend.
Several factors allowed Parkland Immanuel Christian School to overcome the local boys during Saturday night’s match, in which Parkland outscored the Sharks 70-43.
“Our effort was equal to theirs,” coach Darcy Romanuik said. “Our effort was awesome and we worked really hard, but we just couldn’t match their skill.”
Furthermore, the PICS bench was stacked with 14 players compared the Sharks’ eight, meaning the St. Mary players had to work a lot harder than their opponents. On top of that, comparing the two benches it was clear PICS has a substantial height advantage, which is crucial in basketball.
The Sharks tried to mix up their tactics to compensate for their relative disadvantage, but in the end came up short.
“We tried different sets, we tried different systems, different defences and different offences,” Romanuik said. “You can’t teach height, and that’s just such a key thing.”
Despite the disappointing finished, the Sharks’ performance over the weekend was solid, with a 93-34 victory over Pigeon Lake on Friday afternoon followed by a 55-31 win against Redwater on Saturday morning.
To have such a strong performance on home turf is definitely a good sign.
“We got into the finals of our own tournament,” Romanuik said. “I’m very proud. This is our third tournament and the second time we got into the finals — bridesmaids both times, but you’ve got to be in it to win it.”
William Kallal, the tournament’s namesake, was on hand to distribute the medals after the game, and shared his impression of the action with the audience.
“It was a great game; great sportsmanship and great play,” he said. “It’s an honour for me.”
The Sharks will have a brief reprieve from the action this weekend, but will be back at it in Edson on Feb. 17-18.
They will then run the score clock for the St. Mary girls’ home tournament the weekend after that and will then get another weekend off before the zones March 9-10.
