Spartan basketball saw tremendous upside this season

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Spartans senior girls basketball team ended their season with a bronze medal after losing to the host Holy Trinity Academy Knights 68-48 who won silver to take the last provincial berth, preventing the Spartans from gaining the second provincials berth at zones in Okotoks from March 9 to 12.
Head Coach Dion Galandy said they dug themselves into a hole early being down 19-3 after the first quarter but to lose only by 20 points, he felt they matched them the last three quarters.
The girls opened up with a 54-43 loss to Bert Church, relegating them to the B-side where they would beat Bow Valley 64-35 on March 10 in a game Galandy said boosted the girl’s confidence down the stretch.
The Apartans defeated Brooks 52-45 on March 11, in what was a redemption game of sorts after losing to them by two points earlier in the year.
The girls would then face Olds on the morning of March 12 where they came away with a tight 46-38 win.
“I think through the seniors’ energetic play and their determination to do everything they could do to win,” said Galandy.
“That gave all the Grade 10s and 11s some incentive to say ‘oh we should step it up too,’ and everybody did.”
Galandy had a younger team this season and deemed this a rebuilding season with all but two Grade 12s moving on; however, his message was clear: that they were a good team and that they had to believe in themselves, and by the end of the year they did that.
“I think we did exactly what we wanted because we believed that’s what should’ve happened,” said Galandy.
“But with a young team you can’t rely often that they’re going to believe but we believe that they’re good as they are. The two seniors, Mady Fisk and Maria Fanning, those two will leave the high school with a gold zones and a bronze which is pretty impressive in their three years in one of the toughest zones in the province.”
Meanwhile, the senior boys opened up zones with a 93-73 win over the Brooks Buffalos at home on March 9. However, they finished the tournament in Cochrane, where they lost 84-61 to number one ranked Chestermere and to George MacDougall 95-78 to finish an otherwise successful season with a 24-9 record.
As for the Junior Varsity boys, they ended their season with an 83-39 loss to the Foothills Composite Falcons in the opening game as zone hosts on March 11.
Point guard Pierston Kahnapace said a lot of the players developed and got better as the season went on and now have a better understanding of the fundamentals of the game.
“When we pass the ball we’re a lot better team and we can compete with a lot of these other teams,” said Kahnapace.
“Our posts, especially learned how to play proper defense like keeping our hands straight up, avoiding a rough foul because at the beginning of the season a lot of our players fouled out and no one has fouled out our last couple of tournaments.”
Post Isaac Wegner said they had an up and down season in a tough zone because they didn’t have the size other teams had.
He mentioned that it was good year for the players to develop and get more court time, as opposed to being put on the senior team where they wouldn’t get much playing time.