The Olds College Broncos are gearing up for another Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference basketball season beginning on Oct. 18.
The Olds College Broncos are gearing up for another Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference basketball season beginning on Oct. 18.
The women’s team is coming off a conference championship and a bronze medal at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championships in 2012-13 while the men’s team will be looking to improve upon last year’s finish. The women’s team only has two returning players from last year’s team and will be looking to third-year guard Mackenzie Fyfe for leadership.
"I’m just looking to lead my team and build up the other girls. We have a lot of talent at first year so as long as they can take my (suggestions) in a positive way, they’ll be fine," she said.
Fyfe added the newcomers have a lot of potential.
"We’re starting out fresh pretty much. We have a lot of new girls so I’m guessing it’s going to take us a while to come together but the way it’s looking so far, we’ve clicked really fast and so I’m thinking we’ll be all right," she said.
Fyfe said she’s taking last year’s experience as a good learning tool, as the season started out slowly and built toward the national bronze medal.
"We can’t focus right now on winning a national or even an ACAC championship, we just have to take one game at a time. That’s the way we did it last year and if we do that I’m pretty sure we can do that again this year," she said.
Madison Oystrick, one of the many first-year players on the team, said she is hoping to develop her skills on the court and hopes that the team will develop with her. The forward said she welcomes the high-intensity practices head coach Reg Carrick has been running in the lead-up to the season and home opener against the St. Mary’s University Lightning.
"We don’t have to be at the top right now. We’re going up but it doesn’t mean that we have to jump right in and be at the top right now, especially with such a young team," she said.
Carrick said he sees a more balanced group this year that will hopefully grow together. But with key departures of players such as Jylisa Williams, last season’s CCAA women’s player of the year, Carrick said he’s looking to see more players step up and make key contributions.
"We’ll score by committee and this is exciting," he said.
On the men’s side, co-captain and newcomer Joshua Jebose said the team is full of young players but has been gelling well in the pre-season. He added he is looking forward to surprising a few teams. Jebose, a centre who played last year in the Canadian Inter-University Sport league for the University of Northern B.C. Timberwolves, said he is hoping the veterans on the team will help him adjust to a new league.
He said new coach Ben Julius has emphasized playing hard for a full game.
"At this point he just wants us to go out and play for 40 minutes, not let up and just play within our (offensive capabilities), because when we play on offence we’re a very hard team to stop," he said.
Colton Short, a fourth-year forward and co-captain, said the pre-season has been about integrating a few new faces and a new coach, and getting to know everyone on the team. The pre-season has been a good gauge for seeing how the team stacks up against its rivals, he said.
"That was a big learning curve for us. That told us where we were compared to other teams," he said. "(If) everybody gets on the same page I think we’ll be a hard-to-beat team."
The women had a 2-0 pre-season record heading into pre-season games before the Olds Albertan went to press, while the men had a 0-3 record heading into pre-season games last weekend.
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