The Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS) junior girls hosted a four team basketball tournament with teams from Moose Jaw Central, Weyburn, Esterhazy as well as the Junior Lady Raiders from YRHS.
Junior Lady Raiders coach Chad McDowell says he tried to match teams in terms of competitiveness. As a result the tournament has a Grade 10,11,12 team from Weyburn, a Grade 7,8,9 team from Esterhazy, and two Grade 9,10 teams from Moose Jaw and YRHS.
McDowell says the measure of improvement for the Junior Lady Raiders was their win over Moose Jaw Central who beat the girls in a previous game.
The YRHS squad carries a 15 player bench, including five Grade 10s and 10 Grade 9s, as a result of a large turnout at tryouts this year. The girls were athletic and good shooters. "I didn't really want to cut girls who showed a lot of potential so took a bigger squad than normal," McDowell explains.
District competition will reduce the team to 10 players as only Grade 9 girls can compete at the district finals, McDowell points out.
The Junior Lady Raiders are very consistent, McDowell claims. They're good at their press. "That's how we ended up beating Moose Jaw. We scored probably half of our points off of our press," he reports.
The first game against Weyburn was a tough situation as it was the first time the YRHS girls played in a couple of weeks because of semester finals and several other school events. "It was kind of the first time everybody had played together in a long time," McDowell continues.
McDowell says he doesn't have a player who will score 20 points or more in a game. He has five or six girls or more who will score five to six points or more every game. It's a very balanced team, he suggests. "It just makes coaching a little bit easier when you have depth," he says.
The season is about half done with districts coming up March 2 and 3 in Norquay, making February a busy month, McDowell suggests.
He's not particularly concerned about keeping track of wins and losses, focusing instead on playing well. "If we play well, we have a good shot at winning," McDowell closes.
Weyburn finished the tournament with a 3-0 record to take first place. Esterhazy's 2-1 record was good enough for second place. YRHS finished third with a 1-2 record while Moose Jaw was fourth with a 0-3 record.
