A squad of St. Albert girls outplayed players up to two years their senior last weekend to become Alberta’s newest U15 provincial basketball champions.
The St. Albert SLAM Barrett U15 girls beat the Leduc Lightning LCBA Mulder squad 65-55 to nab the Division 2 girls gold medal during the Alberta Basketball Association Youth Provincials in Calgary on March 16.
The win was remarkable in that the SLAM Barrett girls were all 13 years old, not 14 or 15 like their opponents, giving the Lightning a significant height and weight advantage.
SLAM Barrett member and Lorne Akins student Lilianna Barrett said the team erupted in cheers when the final buzzer sounded.
“We were all jumping up and down.”
Bigger challenge
The SLAM Barrett girls started in the U13 division last September but were so skilled that they steamrolled everyone they played against, said head coach Denise Barrett (Lilianna’s mother). After the girls won silver at the U15-level Good Hoops Fall Classic Tournament last fall, she and the other coaches asked the Edmonton Youth Basketball Association (EYBA) if they could move the team up to the U15 level.
“We wanted to challenge them. We wanted them to grow as players over the year,” Denise said.
Denise said the association agreed to the change in January. The SLAM Barrett girls continued to thrive despite facing opponents older (and often a head taller) than them, winning silver at the EYBA City Finals last February.
She said the team learned to switch tactics to compensate for their opponents’ physical advantages. Instead of charging down the court as they used to do, they started playing the outskirts and taking long-range shots.
You just have to figure out the other player’s weakness, Lilianna said — her opponents were bigger, but she was smaller and faster, for example.
“They’re one or two years older than us. That means we still have two years to improve.”
SLAM Barrett member and Elmer S. Gish student Bella Deugau said the team started off strong against the Lightning in Sunday’s championship game, but fell behind as their opponents rallied. The coaches called a timeout and advised the team to focus on defence, which let them recover to net a 10-point victory. Lilianna said the enthusiastic cheers from players on the bench also helped.
EYBA president Jay Ouellette said the association doesn’t often let teams jump up an age level like the SLAM girls did, and rarely sees such a team win at provincials. He was elated the team rose to the challenge.
“We knew they had it in them.”
Denise said the girls will be old enough to try out for SLAM’s U15 division next fall, and predicted they will easily make the cut.
Lilianna and Deugau said they hope to someday play basketball at the college level.
Deugau said basketball is a fun way to get a workout.
“You can play with your friend and make new friends.”
Also making the podium at provincials were the SLAM’s U15 Durie boys (silver in Division 2) and the U11 Zutz girls (bronze in Division 3).
Results from this year’s youth basketball provincials can be found at yp.abbasketball.ca.
