YRHS Lady Raider senior post player Olivia Tomcala returned to the Lady Raider lineup after missing the previous tournament with an ankle injury and paid immediate dividends, leading all Regional players with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double in the Lady Raiders’ SHSAA 5A Small Cities first round game against the Prince Albert – St. Mary Marauders.
“You wouldn’t even have known that she had an ankle injury two weeks ago,” YRHS Lady Raider head coach Jessica Kyle said of Tomcala. “She came out and that wasn’t even on her mind.
“She knew that this was possibly her last weekend of games and she played like it and she had an awesome weekend.”
In the end however, Tomcala’s effort was simply not enough as the sixth ranked Lady Raiders saw their 2015/16 SHSAA 5A season come to a crashing halt in the form of a 48-37 loss to the third seeded Prince Albert – St. Mary Marauders.
“We lost, but it’s not because we played badly. In fact, we played one of our better games of the year,” suggested coach Kyle, adding that her girls committed a season-low 13 turnovers in the loss. “We did turn over the ball a few times, seven of them were on travelling calls, and we gave them a few hoops that way, but the girls played really well, very well, and I couldn’t be happier with their effort.
“They played smart, which was something that we were really focusing on, and never gave up.”
The 11-point loss puts an end to the high school basketball career of nine Lady Raiders, as Tomcala, as well as Abbey Hollinger, Breanne Mak, Kaitlyn Mak, Leah Fleger, Hunter Frankfurt, Jessica Lutz, Tess Berezowski and McKenzie Stachura will all graduate from high school in the summer.
For coach Kyle, the departure of the nine players is made much more difficult by the fact that it was the first group of girls she coached upon coming to Yorkton. “There were definitely some tears – both from myself and all the girls,” said the Lady Raider coach. “They’re good tears of course, and they celebrated what we’ve done over the past few years and how far we’ve come.
“I feel very blessed to have walked into the gym three years ago and been given that group of girls that I was given. They bought into what we’ve done with the program and have worked so hard which I think is evident in what they’ve done over the last three years so, but it’s really tough to say good bye, especially to nine girls.”
Not gone from the Lady Raiders however, are five players that will return next year, as Alex Flaman, Amber Tilcox, Grey Leask, Deanna Kitzul and Marley Potzus are all eligible to return. “We’re losing quite a few girls, but the ones we have coming back are great,” mentioned Kyle. “Alex (Flaman) and Amber (Tilcox) already played big minutes for us, and Grey (Leask) would have been a starter anywhere else and will be with us next year.
“Deanna came to us from Foam Lake this year and has been great for us and hopefully she’ll stay at the Regional next year, and Marley is a grade 10 who probably deserved more minutes than she got this year but is still someone who bought into the whole team thing and when she got out there she produced well for us, so with these girls coming back we should be fine.”
