A drop to the 1A school level for Ashmont School helped boost the senior high basketball team’s ranking to number two in the province when rankings came out last month.
Ashmont boys’ coach George Silva said having a good strong core returning for this season, combined with the drop from 2A to the 1A level, had him confident that the team would be ranked “close to the top.”
The number two seed, along with Glendon School’s boys team ranking ninth in the province, is good news, said Silva. If a couple of teams from the northeast zone do well in the rankings, the more likely it is there will be an extra berth for a northeast team to nab and sail on to provincials. The last time Ashmont School qualified as a 1A school in the 2003/2004 school year, the team was ranked third and ended up finishing second in the provincial finals.
“The ultimate goal for any team is to make provincials,” noted Silva. “We’re just going to try and stay humble and take that second place ranking . . . and just play one game at a time, and if we get to provincials, that would be awesome. We’ve just got to come out and play hard.”
So far this season, the boys have won a tournament in Vermilion and finished second in St. Paul Regional’s Tazmania tournament. Exams marked a break from league play and tournaments last week, but the team will be resuming play at the end of this month. The boys will also be heading to Calgary to compete against southern Albertan teams, who often put up very strong competition, said Silva, adding, “You have to go south and see what they have to offer.”
Glendon School’s senior boys team is also setting its eyes on a potential extra berth for provincials, according to coach Daryn Galatiuk. The kicker is Ashmont School, of which Galatiuk notes, “They’re a very strong squad – they didn’t lose anyone from last year.” But if Glendon’s Nobles perform well in each game, he’s hopeful it can stay high or improve in the rankings and get the wild card draw. “Every game means a lot.”
The boys had a rough beginning this season and “some inner team issues,” said Galatiuk. But during a past January tournament in Cold Lake, the team took on some bigger schools and put in a solid performance, ultimately finishing third. “It was very good for us,” said Galatiuk.
The Nobles resume play in February, and will likely take on the Ashmont Falcons in a league game on Feb. 2. “It should be a good game,” said Galatiuk. “We’re definitely not as big as they are, but we’re a fast team. We’ve got to use our strengths against them, because we’re definitely the underdog.”
The Glendon girls’ team, which received an honourable mention in the rankings, has also got a “good shot” at going to provincials, he added. Last year, the girls’ team came in third at zones and finished eight in the province, while the boys’ team finished fifth in the province.
If the Nobles find themselves in the enviable position of going to provincials in 2011, it will be the sixth year in a row the boys have made it there, Galatiuk notes, saying, ‘We’re very proud of that.”
