SHS senior girls basketball takes silver in first tournament of the season

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Strathmore High School (SHS) senior girls basketball team brought home silver from their first tournament of the season at Strathcona Christian Academy.

Head Coach Dion Galandy said despite having played several league and exhibition games for the season so far, he knew going in it was going to be a tough tournament.

“We played okay against Grande Prairie on Thursday (Dec. 8) night. It was a closer game than we thought it would be in terms of them scoring, but when you are up a lot of points, sometimes you let off a little bit,” he said. “Then on Friday we played the home team (SCA) and they had a pretty good lead on us early in the game. We just fought until we pulled ahead and took a lead with about a minute to go.”

Galandy added his team, after pulling a literal last-minute win out of their hats the previous day, went into the gold medal game exhausted on Saturday (Dec. 10).

Between a fatigued team and being down two of their starting players, he said the result of the game was not a true reflection of what the girls are capable of.

“It could have been better, but it also could have been worse, and we had our chances. We just couldn’t land a lot of shots,” said Galandy. “You always need a bit of luck in a game no matter what, whoever you are, and we did not have any luck at all on Saturday.”

He added he will be working on helping the girls to improve in every aspect of the game, and still has a lot of season left to do so. 

Especially at this point, where initial league rankings have yet to be determined, he is not concerning himself with perfection.

“In early season tournaments like this … you just focus on playing hard and not worrying about mistakes, because mistakes will happen regardless, and you just have to play through them,” he said. “You never know what will happen in a preseason game or a tournament because you don’t know what the other teams are like. It is all about you executing and if you do make a mistake, it is okay because that is what happens in sports.”

Galandy said he is working to develop his team with a very balanced play style as opposed to focusing directly on either offense or defense. 

Initial provincial rankings are set to release in the middle of January, and as of Dec. 14, the SHS Spartans had only suffered one loss.