High School teams going through highs and lows

The Innisfail High School boys and girls senior basketball teams are experiencing the highs and lows typical of a basketball season.

The girls team has seen more success while the boys team has struggled.

Both teams took part in a basketball tournament on the weekend of Jan. 30 and 31 in Olds.

“The one thing about our senior girls team is they definitely have the skills and they're continuing to grow. They've been doing a fabulous job,” said Jeff Anderson, athletic director.

Despite one loss that weekend, assistant coach Donavan Pineau was pleased with his team's efforts.

“The girls did extremely well. They lost in the consolation final to Strathmore. You could tell how tired they were with the small number of players we have,” he said. “Our first game we went to overtime with Olds, and the girls played fantastic but lost,” Pineau added. “Then they won against George McDougall and again played fantastic. It was a great team effort."

Fighting that fatigue was a key piece to their ability to finish, noted Anderson.

“You need to finish those bigger matches. They showed their ability to win on the weekend in the tournament,” he said. “They made it to the consolation final, they were playing great but unfortunately just ran out of steam at the end of that match (against Strathmore) on Saturday.”

The girls team also won a close contest against Camrose, 47 to 35, on Feb. 2 at home.

“They had a great game,” said Anderson. “The coaches were very impressed with their overall performance.”

That same evening, the boys team lost to Camrose by a score of 89 to 38.

“Camrose is a very strong squad, being a larger 3A school,” said Anderson, noting his team struggled that night and did not play as strongly as they did in the tournament on Jan. 30 and 31.

The coaching staff noted Injuries took their toll on the team that weekend.

“We played Sylvan Lake first and we had a great game. We were winning, but they got tired and we lost 86-56,” said Kaye Kronenbusch, head coach of the boys team. “Then we played Rocky (Mountain House) and lost. Finally we played Lacombe and lost. We only had six boys for that game due to injuries.

“Overall it was a great tournament," Kronenbusch concluded.

The basketball teams have tournaments coming up in February, with the regular season wrapping up in early March.

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