John Paul II Crusaders head coach Nate Jurgens was in a celebratory mood this past weekend.
Not only did the junior boys鈥� basketball team that he coaches win their home tournament, but they also turned in their best performance of the season thus far as they posted a 3-0 record.
鈥淐onsidering that we have a younger team this year with nine Grade 8 players, to come out like we did and beat everyone by 20 or more points is really impressive, especially as we come off of the Christmas break,鈥� Jurgens said.
鈥淭o see the way that they are gelling as a team is really impressive. The approach that they are taking in getting better each and every day on the court is starting to show in our games.鈥�
With wins over the Jonas Samson Stingers of Meadow Lake, the North Battleford Comprehensive High School Vikings and the Holy Rosary Raiders of Lloydminster, the Crusaders have improved their record to 8-2 overall this season as they prepare to compete at The Big Dawg Classic in Edmonton this weekend.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 probably the toughest field we will be seeing all year in that tournament,鈥� Jurgens said. 鈥淭he top teams from Edmonton will be there and we鈥檙e going to be seeing a little bit of everything when it comes to the style of play from the schools.
鈥淎s a coach, I want our guys to get out of their comfort zone a little bit and adapt to new challenges. I think this will be a great tune-up for us as we get ready to host the districts in February.鈥�
Meanwhile, the Vikings junior girls team kept up their strong start to the season as they won their third tournament of the season Saturday at John Paul II.
鈥淚 think some of our players may have had a little bit too much turkey over the holidays as our first game wasn鈥檛 great,鈥� Vikings head coach Kara Wilkinson joked.
鈥淭here鈥檚 still a little bit of panic from the girls at time out there, which is something we saw at our home tournament in December, but I think as we gain some more in-game experience that will get out of their system.鈥�
Although they didn鈥檛 come away with tournament honours, the Vikings junior boys and Crusaders junior girls teams also fared well in their first games since Christmas.
鈥淐onsidering that we didn鈥檛 have a lot of time to practice before the tournament, I thought the guys played really well,鈥� Vikings head coach Jeff Gibson said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a little bit of worry whenever you have a bit of a layoff about getting back into the swing of things, but these guys are all in good shape and they play a lot of basketball during the noon hour to stay active.鈥�
鈥淭he girls were competitive in all of their games, and that鈥檚 what you like to see after a long layoff,鈥� Crusaders head coach Kristina Binette added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important for them to get back into a game situation and get used to doing the little things right once again.鈥�
Both Vikings teams and the Crusaders junior girls squad are off this weekend before travelling to tournaments at Prince Albert Carlton and Prince Albert St. Mary next weekend.
