Spartans senior basketball teams off to quick start

By Brady Grove, Times Reporter

The Strathmore High School (SHS) Spartans basketball season has begun and so far the senior Boys team has played strongly and the senior Girls team has been very effective as both clubs prepared for a tournament in Cochrane on Dec. 14-15.
“We will have a bit of a test this weekend to see where we are at,” said Spartans Senior Boys Head Coach Matthew Laslo.
The senior Boys are sitting with a 7-1 and shooting strong early in the season. Laslo has been very happy with his team’s success and effort so far this season and feels as if the club could have a perfect record.
“We were up by three with 30 seconds left and this kid hit back-to-back threes to win it, one of them time was expiring so it was a buzzer beater,” said Laslo of his team’s single loss this year.
The senior Boys are a veteran crew ripe and hungry for championship runs with only one Grade 10 player out of the thirteen total players. According to Laslo, the boys are very skilled and have lots of depth throughout their lineup which allows them to wear down their opponents.
“We got a strong team. We’ve had a lot of kids playing basketball since junior high and (they’ve) put in lots of time and they’ve all played together,” said Laslo. “I think if we are going to do something this year and next are kind of our years.”
Laslo would like to see more consistency from his team and wants to see their A-game more often but expects it to get better the season goes on.
While the senior Boys team is going to be challenging this year with their veteran-laden roster, the senior Girls are a much younger team with only three players not being in Grade 10. The Girls have compiled a 3-1 record so far and have surprised head coach Kyle Larson.
“I felt like this was going to be a learning season to see what high school basketball was all about,” said Larson. “But you know what? They are a competitive group, they work super hard and that effort puts us in a lot of basketball.”
Like the boys’ team, Larson believes part of the team’s early victories can be attributed to depth across all positions and he likes the speed, heart and tenacity the girls have shown.
Larson was concerned about his young team’s ability to handle the physical play that comes at the high school level but believes the club can build on its foundation as the year progresses and improve in areas such as rebounding and physical play.
“We’ve got what we need to grow across the season and be quite competitive come playoff time,” said Larson.
For more information visit strathmorehighschool.com/Athletics.