High school basketball is back and with that comes learning and opportunity.
The Foothills Falcons senior girls basketball team has proven to be a force to be reckoned with in the early stages with two straight appearances in tournament finals in the opening weeks of action.
“It’s been interesting because we have a lot of young kids who want to play the game and are really excited,” said Falcons senior girls head coach Vince Hunter. “We lost some of the older students, they missed out for a year or two and kind of moved on in what they’re doing.
“There’s lots of enthusiasm about playing and it was hard to select (the team), but we’re super young and the kids are really excited and we have a ton of work to do.”
Foothills boasts just two players from its 2019-20 season in Grade 12s Trista Thorn and Jorja Carlson. Fellow senior Jessica Statham is new to the varsity team this year with the team also boasting eight Grade 11 athletes as well as two in Grade 10.
“Them trying to learn and understand our crazy way of playing ball over here has certainly been a curve for them,” the coach added. “They’re learning a lot on the fly, we just haven’t had a lot of time to practice and do those things, especially trying to respect volleyball and bringing the team together so late.
“Our future is super bright and we definitely have a couple of great leaders back. They’re doing a great job at trying to help the kids understand what it takes to be competitive in the 4A world.
“The young kids just need to be exposed a little bit to that. I don’t think they’re quite used to the intensity yet and the rigor of practising every night and playing every weekend.”
Foothills bounced back into action by knocking off the HTA Knights at the Okotoks school’s home tournament final in late-November.
A rematch one week later at Red Deer’s Notre Dame Tournament saw the Knights answer back to defeat Foothills in the gold medal match on Dec. 4.
The Falcons earlier beat Hunting Hills and St. Joseph in the competition.
“It wasn’t a great tournament for us,” Hunter said. “That was a rough weekend. Unfortunately, we’re already battling the injury bug and that definitely played into our ability to sort of run-and-gun and play our style.
“I felt like we were a little beat up going into it, we could have used a little rest prior to that tournament, but we played OK, it was a learning experience and we talked a lot about resilience and what it takes to compete when you’re tired and hurting a little.
“That’s part of that togetherness that we really believe will make us mentally tough in the end.”
The tournament action continues during a busy month for the Falcons with a stop in Cardston on Dec. 10-11 followed by a competition in Medicine Hat the following weekend prior to the holiday break.
