Hawks saw improvements

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Holy Cross Collegiate Hawks senior boys basketball team learned how to play high-end basketball at zones in Okotoks on March 13-14.
Coach Tony Irving was impressed with what his boys were able to accomplish as an eighth seeded team.
“We went to zones being seeded eighth, which meant we had to play the first place team, which is St. Josephs out of Brooks. They were a tough team to play against because they’re incredibly fast and really quick with their hands, and also they’re ranked fifth in the province,” said Irving.
“We held our own with them, we were within eight points with about 20 minutes left to go in the game and just too many steals in the offensive end caused us a lot of difficulty in the end of the game.”
The boys were relegated to the consolation game because of a loss to Drumheller, but ended off with a dominating victory.
“We beat Three Hills in the consolation game by 20,” he said.
Irving felt this was a real positive note to end the season on.
“I think so in terms of the fact that we didn’t do well within our league, we did well in tournaments. But in light of the fact we hadn’t done well in our league and having a lot of the same teams in our league that were in the zone final, we didn’t do too badly,” said Irving.
There were immense improvements in the whole season and it showed on the court.
“Probably the two biggest things were team defense and learning what to do offensively outside running an offense,” said Irving.
He added that the Grade 10s and 11s would have to step into more of a leadership role to fill the void of the graduating Grade 12s.
As for the junior varsity girls, they battled hard and placed fifth at zones in Canmore.
“Zones went really well, we lost our first game, the girls just couldn’t get energized, but then they played really well the rest of the tournament. We ended up winning the consolation side, so we took fifth overall,” said coach Deanna Sample.
“Definitely the highlight of the season was the silver medal in the St. Joesph’s tournament in Brooks.
Throughout the season, the offense gained more points per game and the fitness level helped get them through games.
“We went from averaging 20-25 per game to closer to 40-50 points a game. Overall, our passing and strength and conditioning got better,” said Sample.
She also thought the level of play came a long way as the year went along, as well as the team’s ability to adapt to the plays on the fly.