St. Francis Xavier Sports Centre – Nothing short of a repeat performance will satisfy the 3A provincial gold medallists and metro Edmonton premier champion St. Albert Skyhawks.
“Expectations are just as high, if not higher this year,” co-captain Shelby Hucul said after the Skyhawks tipped off the season Thursday at the 13th annual Mike Dea Classic.
The first St. Albert team of any size or school to win a provincial women’s title in basketball also made history by going 14-0 as the only 3A team in premier in 2009/10.
The Skyhawks are also among the very few 3A teams in metro history to celebrate a premier championship.
“Just because we won last season doesn’t mean it’s given to us this season. We still have to go out and prove ourselves every game,” said Hucul, one of five returnees on the 11-player roster. “We know what we have to do. We have all the players. We have good athletes. We just pretty much have to go out there and work our [butts] off.”
One of the most decorated high school teams ever in St. Albert won 34 games and lost five. All the losses were against 4A competition in tournaments, including a pair of defeats to the Spruce Grove Panthers, the silver medallists at the 2010 4A championship.
“We want to do the same this year as we did last year,” said Katie Burak, a Grade 11 post and second-year Skyhawk. “We know that we have a big target on our backs this year so we’re going to embrace that and work really hard to achieve our goals. It’s going to be hard but our team can definitely do it again if we can keep pushing.”
The Skyhawks are shooting for their seventh straight trip to provincials and their fifth in a row as the Edmonton zone champions under the direction of head coach John Dedrick.
“I’m confident in my teammates and our coaches that we can do it. We’re really focused as a team and very dedicated,” Burak said.
The Skyhawks are young by premier standards with four Grade 10s and five Grade 11s. Hucul, a highly-touted point guard, and forward Stephanie Gartner are the only Grade 12s in the line-up.
Transfer students Hayley Warmington (Grade 11 forward) from the Paul Kane Blues and Haley England (Grade 11 post) from the Morinville Lady Wolves are welcome additions.
“We’ve got a lot of good new players who know their stuff,” said Burak, an aggressive five-foot-eight Skyhawk who plays a big game in the paint despite her small stature.
The Skyhawks lost six players to graduation, including floor general Hilary Annich, the consensus MVP in premier.
“The Grade 10s and the new people coming up are fitting in well. They are sort of getting into their roles for the season,” said Hucul, a third-year Skyhawk who will quarterback the offence in place of the departed Annich. “This year we have more of a post presence inside so we’re going to dish the ball inside lots. We also have lots of speed this year too.
“We’ve always had to work hard as a team to be successful and this year it’s no exception.”
In their season debut the Skyhawks waltzed past the Bowness Trojans of Calgary 67-33 at the Dea tournament, hosted by the St. Francis Xavier Rams.
“It felt good to be on the court again. We all wanted to be here. We couldn’t wait until the season started,” said Burak, 16.
Down by one after the first quarter the Skyhawks outscored Bowness 19-3 and led 30-15 at halftime. Bowness didn’t sink its first bucket in the second quarter until there was 3:30 remaining in the 10-minute period and the Skyhawks ahead by 14.
After three quarters the score was 50-27. The Skyhawks should have hit triple digits but missed a ton of layups and put-backs in the loosely officiated contest.
Bowness was also coming off a 69-35 rout of the Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds earlier in the day and was constantly subbing in waves of players.
Hucul, 17, was the top scorer with 15 points. Kendall Lydon, the game star of the thrilling premier final with two clutch free throws with 0.1 left on the clock to beat the O’Leary Spartans 74-72, tacked up 13. Burak and England chipped in with eight apiece and Amber Easthope had six.
“It was a pretty good start to the season. It was a solid game. Everyone was working hard. We were running down the court, and that’s one of our main goals — we always want to push down the court and run,” Hucul said.
Friday night the Skyhawks played Spruce Grove in the semifinals but the score was unavailable at press time. The other semifinal was between O’Leary and Leboldus of Regina.
Depending on the result against Spruce Grove, the Skyhawks are back on the court today at 2:15 in the third place game or in the 6 p.m. final. The tournament schedule is online at www.stfrancisxavier.ecsd.net
League play for the Skyhawks begins Monday in Sherwood Park against the Archbishop Jordan Scots at 6:15 p.m. Their home opener is Wednesday against the Salisbury Sabres at 4:45 p.m. at the SkyDome.
“I can’t wait for our first home game. It’s going to be awesome,” Hucul said.
