The R.F. Staples senior boys basketball team entered the new year on fire, taking home gold in Lac La Biche and winning the consolation final in Fort Saskatchewan over the weekend.
The team beat out some tough competition, including the 4A Westwood Trojans from Fort McMurray, to take first place at the Jan. 6-7 tournament in Lac La Biche. The Thunderbirds beat the Trojans 70-57 in the hard-fought gold-medal match.
“It was a tough task; they only lost one time this year,” coach Jon Hutchison said. “They can shoot the lights out, to tell you the truth, but we were able to lock down and win.”
The victory against the northern Alberta team really bolstered the Thunderbirds’ spirits, marking an auspicious beginning for 2012.
The club’s first game in the six-team tournament also served as a good morale booster for the tourney: Westlock beat the host J.A. Williams Sharks by a wide 77-35 margin.
“Beating them at their own home tournament, that’s always a good one to start off with,” Hutchison said.
The victory comes despite a slow start due to the players being a bit rusty after the Christmas holidays.
Saturday morning’s game was against the Mallaig School, a 1A team, and the T-Birds demonstrated their superiority by an unusually wide margin, beating them 80-15.
Hutchison said that normally, the boys would not run up the score like that but because the tournament was set up so that points for and against would act as a tiebreaker,
“Usually you don’t want to rack up scores on teams, and the guys are not like that, but when you have to go by points you pretty much have to keep scoring,” he said.
Moving forward in the season, Hutchison said he hopes to focus on the same things he focused on in the first part of the season.
“Basically, we’re going to keep changing our defence,” he said. “Every time we play a different team, we have an opportunity to use it against them.”
As for the team’s chances with zones and provincials, Hutchison has an optimistic outlook.
“Any team can win, that’s the way I look at it,” he said.
The team had a rude awakening at the start of the Jan. 13-14 tournament in Fort Saskatchewan, losing the first game 69-39 to the hosts.
“It was a tough game,” Hutchison said. “It’s a team we can beat, but we just came out flat.”
This was the first time the Thunderbirds had faced Fort Saskatchewan — a team he said has provincial potential.
Not only did the tough competition make it difficult for the boys, but the mindset of players further complicated things; he said coming off a win a week earlier, the team was overconfident.
“It’s a little disheartening, but you’ve got to lose in order to stay humble,” he said. “You can’t win everything.”
After the crushing defeat at the hands of Fort Saskatchewan, the Thunderbirds went on to dominate Edson’s Gerard Redmond Community Catholic School, beating them by 40. The team also beat Edmonton’s 4A Old Scona Academic High School by 30 points.
Throughout the tournament, Hutchison said the team struggled with keeping its intensity up.
“The intensity wasn’t high enough and that’s part of the problem and it comes with overconfidence,” he said, adding the team has made improvements in other areas.
“We’re holding the lead and that comes with time. We have a young team and it’s hard to keep your lead because you let your guard down. With only three Grade 12s, that makes it harder,” he said.
The T-Birds take the court next on Feb. 3-4 in Stony Plain, but Hutchison said he hopes to set up a small tournament with St. Mary School at the end of January.
