The Paul Kane Blues trumpeted the arrival of the upcoming basketball season by blowing their horns.
“Paul Kane basketball, girls and boys, are going to make a lot of noise this year,” declared Rick Stanley, the new head coach of the varsity men’s team, during last Saturday’s successful banquet and silent auction at the Paul Kane High School cafeteria. “This program has an incredible amount of kids and athletes that are waiting to explode.”
While the parade route through the streets of St. Albert hasn’t been finalized, Stanley is confident the Blues will challenge for championship honours.
“I’m really excited about the potential of the teams this year.”
A playoff berth for the lady Blues would be a major accomplishment. They haven’t made the playoffs the last four seasons. In 2009/10 they finished seventh out of seven teams at 2-10 in the metro Edmonton premier conference. The junior ladies, however, won back-to-back premier titles the past two seasons.
The varsity men haven’t got past the premier semifinals or earned a spot in the Edmonton zone 4A provincial qualifying tournament since their second-straight metro playoff championship and historic 4A provincial gold-medal victory in 2008.
Last season was defined by two losses to the Sturgeon Spirits: 79-71 in the second-last game in the regular season that pretty much determined first place in pool B, and 65-62 in the playoff to determine the third metro seed team in the zone tournament.
In league play the Blues finished 8-5 after going 8-4 the previous campaign.
The Blues can potentially return every player but one from last season. The junior boys, premier finalists four consecutive years, also have players that will challenge for roster spots on the senior squad.
“I have high expectations for the boys,” Stanley said. “If we do our homework and do all the right things, I believe that we are going to be one of the top teams in the metro.”
Stanley succeeds Cam Fischer as the Blues’ bench boss. After two seasons as head coach, Fischer left Paul Kane to teach overseas.
Stanley was eager to coach high school hoops after 11 stellar seasons running the show for the Jasper Place Rebels.
“I got a new position at Centre High [in downtown Edmonton] as assistant principal but basketball is a passion that I love, especially the coaching aspect, and that is important to me. I had connections here at the school through families of the kids that I’ve coached on provincial teams. I was approached by a couple of people in terms of whether I would be interested because coach Fischer was moving to Australia because his wife had a position there. I actually had talked to him about helping him out as an assistant [before Fischer’s departure became official],” said the St. Albert resident.
“After that, things went boom and kind of exploded from there. The next thing I know I walked into a situation where I could be the head coach and I really do feel I lucked out.”
The recipient of the Dr. Peter Mullins Trophy as the 1987/88 CIS rookie of the year with the Alberta Golden Bears has a wealth of knowledge to share with the Blues.
“I’ve brought some history and a good resume with me from Jasper Place and a very good coaching record,” said the Edmonton public league coach of the year in 2006 and 2008 for the perennial provincial contenders. “I’m really excited about the kids here. The boys are working so hard. Things are really clicking. We’ve had a lot of great practices and they’re really picking up the systems well.
“These guys are high octane. I’m really impressed with the explosiveness that we have with the ability, too, to move the ball and get down the floor really fast. We’re going to be an exciting team to watch.”
The former Golden Bears’ captain is looking to carry 13 players, not including Bryce Jouan. The Grade 12 forward is coming off a major lower-body injury and didn’t play last season.
“He is kind of hiding in the pasture right now. Nobody knows about him. They’ve forgotten about him,” Stanley said. “He is working hard to get back and I think we’ll get him back by January. When we do get him back we’re going to be an absolute force to be reckoned with. We’re still going to be a force but he is going to add a big punch for us inside.”
Stanley is also excited about coaching in the metro league after a long stint in the public league with Jasper Place.
“I’m going to let the public teams beat the heck out of each other and we’re just going to walk right through them in zones,” he laughed. “Our goal is to win the metro conference, get a good seed in the provincial tournament and go on to win the provincial championship and nothing less.”
Highlighting the tradition of excellence at Paul Kane was the theme of the first annual basketball fundraiser. The event was sold out as former players and coaches from various years turned out in droves to celebrate the storied history of Paul Kane basketball.
“If I’m going to be here, one thing I want to do is take care of the people that have worked hard and created some history. I want to acknowledge that history and share that with everybody and what a perfect way to start that off by doing a banquet with an auction to raise a ton of money,” said Stanley, who noted the idea for the banquet was cooked up in tandem with Terry MacPherson, Paul Kane’s most valuable player in 1973.
“Paul Kane has been an incredible school that has had a wealth of talent and athleticism and it needs to be showcased more. The predecessors [head coaches] were popular figures in the community. They’ve done very well and they deserve some accolades and attention because they’ve contributed so much.”
Some of the monies raised will help assist the Paul Kane teams to travel to San Diego for a tournament during the Christmas break.
“It’s unreal the great support here in the community and hence one of the reasons why I was so excited and happy to come to this school and help coach.”
