There ' s a pretty straightforward two-word response you get when Foothills Athletic Council coaches are asked to pick a favourite for the 2012-13 season.
Foothills Composite.
Six-straight Senior boys basketball titles in the local Foothills Athletic Council (FAC) loop have a tendency to inspire that type of confidence.
Despite a revamped Foothills Falcons squad, there ' s little reason not to believe the Okotoks school will be in seventh heaven come season ' s end.
The FAC broke the eight-team league into two tiers for this season. Foothills, Holy Trinity Academy (HTA), Highwood High and Holy Cross Collegiate will vie for the Tier I crown. Tier II features Oilfields High, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School, Strathmore High and Notre Dame Collegiate.
Tier I
Foothills Falcons
The 2012-13 edition of the Foothills Falcons is short on Seniors, but has ample size in experience with six returning players from last year ' s championship roster.
“ Three of those guys that we return are still in Grade 11 this year so it still puts as a fairly young team,” said Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam. “ We only have three Grade 12s on the entire team.”
Fortunately for the maroon-clad squad their three incumbents in Grade 11 are proven commodities in Senior hoops, including starting point guard Jamie DeRochie and forwards Noah Wilkie and Austin Orr.
Grade 11 Hunter Karl, who starred on both sides of the ball for the Falcons football team, will also bolster the roster after transferring from Chestermere High.
“ That ' s a big addition,” Gwilliam said. “ He ' s just a great athlete, he ' s going to bring a lot of quickness and athleticism and that will help us on the defensive end and also on the offensive end.”
Grade 12 incumbents are six-foot-seven Tanner Parrington, Taylor Armsworthy and Seichi Kyle. The Falcons coach said the former will be expected to the lead the team.
Junior Varsity Falcon grads Matt Lloyd and Anthony Cayetano will fill specific roles for the club.
The Falcons are not as tall a group as in previous years, especially given the graduation of six-foot-six Ray Goff, which could lead to a change in systems.
“ We ' re actually a fairly small team this year,” Gwilliam said. “ Overall, we ' re going to have to play an up-tempo style to push the ball up the court and try to put a lot of pressure on defensively.”
Following the disappointment of a loss in the 4A South Central Zone final to George McDougall last season, Gwilliam is putting a lot of stock in a provincial berth this go around.
“ Our goal is really to get to the 4A provincials and to compete there,” he said. “ Anything less than that is a bit of a downer for us.”
The Falcons started the season well with a third-place finish at the McGrath tournament on Dec. 1.
HTA Knights
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights bring a similar youthful element to the forefront as just four players remain from last year ' s second place finish in the FAC.
Knights head coach Sam Aiello said he expects his four incumbents — Kyler Helinksi, Matt Vant Erve, Colton Vessey and Jordan Lee — to be at the forefront all season.
“ Kyler is a third year Senior and Matt is a second year Senior and they should definitely be stepping up this year for us,” Aiello said. “ All of our Grade 12s worked hard in the off-season and hopefully they will be ready for the challenge this year.”
The Knights feature five Grade 12s, the four returnees, along with Braydon Garagan who is moving up from the Junior Varsity team. There is balance on the roster with three Grade 11s and 10s balancing out the lineup.
Knights ' superstar James LaGrange, the versatile Ryan Hassler as well as point-guard Zach Vant Erve and post Riley Moss are all key losses to the team due to graduation.
“ We ' ve picked up some Grade 10s this year who are quite good and are going to see some serious minutes,” Aiello said, adding point guard Dylan Wheeler and wing James Hielema are showing promise. “ We have a little bit of size in (Nick Peloso) who ' s a six-five kid who played with the JV team last year and a six-foot-four post player Nate Wall. We look for big things from them.”
Roster changes aside, the Knights ' will bring back their fast-break offence that was so successful for them a year ago.
“ We ' re going to try to be up-tempo again this year, for sure. We will try to use fast-break as much as we can,” Aiello said. “ I think the one thing that ' s consistent with Holy Trinity basketball is we ' re going to give you a game every game. Whether we win or lose we ' re going to fight to the end.
Highwood Mustangs
The Highwood Mustangs are back in the FAC after taking last year off to focus on tournament play.
They intend to make their presence known early.
“ We ' re going to get up in everyone ' s face this year,” said Mustangs head coach Jeromy Hall. “ We have 11 athletes, we have four bigs, I have some people who can play in the post or on the perimeter and since my young kids are so aggressive we ' re going to use our aggression and try to press team as much as we can”
The Mustangs bring five holdovers from last year ' s roster to the court in Joel Douglas, Jesse Woodward, Wesley Robinson, Jake Skorey and Todd Li.
“ Those five will be critical for us this year,” Hall said. “ Jake, Wes and Todd have been with me since Grade 10 and they ' re third year Seniors so we ' re going to lean on them a lot.”
The Mustangs have also received a shot of life from some fresh faces on the hard court, many of whom had strong showings at Highwood ' s tournament last weekend in which they won the consolation title.
“ They ' re scrappy athletes, they ' re the ones who are going to bring energy,” Hall said. “ It ' s exactly what you wanted from new kids coming off the bench.”
Point guard Eric Kuziw and post Jerome Faber, a first-year player as a Senior with great natural ability, have shone particularly brightly for Highwood.
Oilfields Drillers
The Oilfield High School Drillers make their return to the FAC after not fielding a Senior men ' s team last season.
“ I can ' t say enough about them, they ' re thrilled to be playing this year,” said head coach Joe Perrault. “ They ' re happy that there ' s a Senior team for sure.”
This year ' s squad is a cohesive one that has matured together and earned a solid third place finish in the FAC ' s Junior Varsity ranks last season.
“ A lot of these kids have played together for many, many years so they know what their strengths are,” said Perrault. “ It ' s a small community and the kids have been playing together for pretty much their whole high school career so there ' s huge familiarity with the kids which is going to help immensely.”
Ouelette expects the strength of the Oilers to be on the glass with post-presences coming in the form of Branden Powell, Orrie Malmberg and Teagan McChesney.
The Drillers feature five Grade 12s in Powell, Ryan Elliott, Cole Perrault, Riley Peiritsch and Kaden Feil as well as five Grade 11s.
The Drillers will be competing with the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans, Strathmore Spartans and Notre Dame Collegiate Timberwolves in Tier II of the FAC.
“ I asked the kids what their goal is and their goal is to see a banner on the wall,” Perrault said. “ We ' re going to do our best to make that happen. We have the talent I think to do it.”
STS Spartans
It ' s going to be a new style of basketball when the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans step on the floor this season.
“ Last year we were a little more half-court and we ' re going to be a little more up-tempo this year just by the nature of the guys we have on the floor,” said Spartans head coach Jeff Petersen. “ And the fact that we ' re not as big.”
The Spartans feature six returning players in Justin Nadeau, Taylor Chase, Luke Macios, Ben Roskey, Brett De Bee and Chase Van Sant.
However, the will have to compete without their best player from last season Dan Mullie, who graduated from the school. Despite the absence of the returning star, the 2012-13 version of the team is one boasting depth.
“ It ' s a good group of guys that are moving up,” Petersen said. “ We ' re not terribly big in terms of post players, but we have good height across the board.”
Six-foot-five Grade 11 Michael Kashmirian offers the team some much needed post play.
“ He ' s a good, quick player with good offensive skills,” Petersen said. “ There ' s certainly a lot of potential there.”
Zack Coe, an STS student just returning to the school after living in Fort McMurray, brings the team some poise from the point-guard spot.
With such a new group in an unfamiliar tier system, the Spartans coach didn ' t want to offer up any firm predictions for the campaign.
“ With the number of new guys it ' s going to be a completely new mix and we ' ll see how they manage,” he said.
The Spartans begin their season Dec. 12 when they face-off with the Notre Dame Collegiate Timberwolves in High River.
The Oilfields Drillers begin their 2012-13 campaign on Dec. 10 when the team hosts the Starhmore Spartans in Black Diamond.
In Tier 1 action, the Foothills Composite begins its season in High River tonight, Dec. 5, in a tip-off versus the Highwood Mustangs.
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights are in Strathmore tonight to meet the Holy Cross Collegiate Hawks. All tip-offs are at 7:15 p.m.
For full schedules and results go to www.foothillsathletics.ca.
