Kings take command in South Division

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Agra Risk Wheatland Kings area starting to regain their footing in the standings, following a pair of wins over High River and Cochrane respectively Nov. 7-8.

“We have been looking for consistent work ethics from the boys … since we lost to High River, the bottom team in the league, we have been making sure we show up and the effort is there every night,” said Doug Raycroft, head coach of the Kings. “This weekend, the effort was definitely there. We’ve still got some things to work on for sure, it wasn’t a perfect weekend by any means, but it was much better for us.”

The Kings, who are 10-6 on the season trail just Red Deer and Sylvan Lake in the overall standings.

Raycroft added he believes his team has the potential to be the best in the league as long as they play with more consistency and continue improving their defense. 

“They listen and they understand that there are certain things we need to improve on, and I think this weekend there was a lot of buy-in from our leadership group,” he said. “We are pretty happy with the week and where we are as a whole, but we got a lot of work still to do and this year we feel like we got an opportunity to be one of the better teams. We are going to keep striving to be there and work hard to stay at the top of the league.”

Raycroft added the juggernaut that has been Okotoks in prior seasons seems to be faltering and is not as commanding as they have been previously. 

Currently, the Bisons are sitting at 18 league points, currently ranked fourth in the South Division.

“One thing about this year is that we feel like there is a big opportunity to do something special because there isn’t a dominant team like there has been in years past,” said Raycroft. “I think for us, we are going to keep working on our defensive game. It’s always a balance – you can’t just work on one area of your game. In practice, we will have a focus on our defensive side and trying to get better in that area.”

The Kings will now hit the road for a trio of games beginning with Coaldale and Ponoka Nov. 15-16 respectively. They will then face Airdrie on Nov. 21 before hosting High River on Nov. 22 (7:45 p.m.) at the Strathmore Family Centre.