Students on the Kamsack Comprehensive Institute senior girls basketball team are optimistic that they will be able to do this year what four of them did two years ago: qualify for Hoopla, the provincial high school basketball championship.
The team placed fourth at Hoopla two years ago, said Ryan Stanko, who with Dave Placatka coaches the team.
The team has one more game in its season, and that will be in Canora on February 23 or 25, and then come the Conferences, Stanko said last week. Seven teams will be at the Conferences competition on March 4 and 5 with the place yet to be announced, he said. From the Conferences, the top two teams will advance to the Regionals and the team that places first at the Conferences will be the host of the four-team Regional competition.
And then, the winner of the Regionals will qualify to advance to the Hoopla.
“We started the season in November with four straight wins, including winning our home tournament” Stanko said. “Then we hit a rough patch and lost four games.
“We won the Langenburg tournament held February 5 and 6, winning all three games against Melville, Rocanville and Moosomin,” he said.
Discussing the team, Stanko said that this year, unlike other years, the team does not depend on one or two superstars.
“This year, each member of the team is able to step up to be the leader of the team,” he said. “The team includes a number of grades 11 and 12 students, so it has a lot of senior leadership.
“We’ve gone through injuries but the members’ spirits are high,” he said, adding that during the team’s winning streak, the team was invited to attend a tournament in Wynyard that was meant for the top teams.
“That was an eye-opener,” he said. “Because we had been beating all the teams in our area we thought we were doing well, but we lost at that tournament. That experience exposed our weaknesses and showed us what to work on. We learned a lot.”
The four members of the team who competed at Hoopla two years ago are: Kaylie Bowes, Cassidy Aker, Malee Shingoose and Lexie Tomochko. The other members of the team are: Elizabeth Hilderman, Kiera Nikiforoff, Allison Placatka, Jalayna Bielecki, Alanna Finnie, Allison Thomsen, Shani Bear and Chloe Irvine.
