INNISFAIL – The town's high school senior girls' basketball team continues to improve its game with old-fashioned hard work.
Their outstanding play recently earned the girls a bronze medal in the school’s first invitational senior girls' basketball tournament at Innisfail High Schoo on Nov. 29 and 30.
“This is the first time they’ve actually had an (invitational) tournament in Innisfail and they won a bronze medal,” said John Harris, head coach.
About eight teams from around Central Alberta were invited to attend the tournament, he noted, adding his team was off to a good start in the two-day tournament but ran into some tough competition.
“We went in strong in our first game and we won convincingly. We won 67-36 in our first game,” said Harris. “So it was a great, positive energy win. We probably got a little too confident going into Game 2 and just fell off on a few things, but we continue to work on them.”
He noted a loss in Game 2 to an aggressive Cremona team.
“We’re still figuring ourselves out and how to work together, so we took a hard loss there and came back with a really strong win with pure defence,” said Harris. “We won (Game 3) against Caroline 27-16.”
That victory against Caroline earned Innisfail the bronze medal, which was not an easy feat, he noted.
“One of our main girls ended up getting fouled out of the game and she eats up 80 per cent of the minutes,” explained Harris. “Everybody stepped in and together got a team win.
“Everybody was doing everything together (like) hard work. I’ve never seen them work so hard,” he added. “It was great defence and we held them to 16 points in the game.”
Harris said it’s been a good season so far and pointed out what he has seen from the senior girls' basketball team on the courts.
“We’re still working on our offence. There’s a lot of new faces, it’s only the second year of the program so we’re continuing to work on that,” said Harris. “But every game you see progress and a lot of good things together.
“Hard work, energy, commitment and just very dedicated,” he added. “They continue to progress both with individual skills and as a team,” said Harris. “They want to work, they want to get better and you see it day by day. We’re going to have a good year.”
The Innisfail senior girls' basketball team includes players Emma Gabert, Madison Towle, Allison Jensen, Jade Ellis, Grace Neis, Reanna Phillips, Linnea Yu Hammarsten, Hope Jacobs, Madysen Kirk, Mackenzie Mountain and Kyleigh Boylan.
David Thompson High School, west of Red Deer, defeated Cremona to win the gold medal game.