The St. Albert Skyhawks have set lofty goals for themselves this season: win everything in sight and end it all with a third straight 3A provincial women’s basketball championship.
The road to a possible provincial three-peat for the St. Albert Catholic High School team started with Thursday’s season-opening 77-29 thrashing of the Sturgeon Spirits at the 14th annual Mike Dea Classic.
“Everyone wants it so badly. It’s definitely one of our goals and we’re going to start to achieve that again,” said Katie Burak, a rugged Grade 12 forward who likes to mix it up under the hoop.
The Skyhawks have their sights set on qualifying for their eighth straight provincials and winning their sixth consecutive Edmonton zone championship.
“We want to win everything we can and if not it will be a disappointment,” said Kendall Lydon, a high-scoring Grade 12 guard and three-point shooting specialist.
Burak, Lydon and Grade 12 guard Zoe Downing are the only Skyhawks remaining from the first St. Albert team of any size or school to win a provincial banner in women’s basketball.
“To win it a third year would be amazing, not only for the team but for the school, too,” Burak said. “As good as we’ve been we still can’t underestimate anyone. There are a lot of great teams out there this year so we’ll have to play hard and see how it goes.”
Teams will be gunning for the Skyhawks after their rare feat of consecutive provincial victories.
“We’ll have a huge target on our back no matter where we go and whatever game we play,” said Lydon, 18.
Last season the Skyhawks finished 32-12 overall after their historic 2010 campaign when they were undefeated Metro Edmonton Premier Conference champions and finished the season 34-5 overall.
There are two big reasons for the team’s success: work ethic and team chemistry.
“We refuse to be outworked by any team. That’s our No. 1 priority. We leave everything out on the court,” said Burak, 17.
“We all flow together. There is no drama. Every girl likes each other,” Lydon said.
This year’s edition of Skyhawks consists of eight returnees and three newcomers: Grade 11 guard Jade Fisher from the junior Skyhawks, Lauren Walter, the team’s tallest forward at five-foot-10 from the 2011 SAPEC city champion Lorne Akins Gators, and gritty forward Kayla Ivicak from the Vincent J. Maloney Marauders.
“I have confidence in all of our players. Everyone is great. They’re all hard workers and great athletes. I’m really excited to work and play with them,” Burak said.
Thursday’s tip off against Sturgeon felt like Christmas morning for the Skyhawks.
“Everyone was so jacked at school all day for this game,” Lydon said. “It was a fun game to start the season. We play Sturgeon in league and we’re looking forward to playing them again.”
The Skyhawks led 21-6 after the first quarter, 37-18 at halftime and 62-26 after three quarters.
“It was a good game for our first game. We pushed the ball a lot. We ran the court well,” Burak said. “We’ve still got to figure out some of our technicalities but we’ll get there.”
Lydon was the top scorer with 22 points and a trio of three-pointers. Burak sank 11 of her 13 points in the first half. A pair of tough rebounders – Haley England and Paige Knull – added nine and eight points, respectively. Downing and Hayley Warmington had seven apiece in the quarter-final match.
The semifinal between the Skyhawks and Archbishop Jordan Scots in the 12-team draw was played Friday night, but the score was unavailable at press time.
In today’s playoff round the third-place game tips off at noon and the final goes at 6 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier High School.
Last year the Skyhawks lost the final to the O’Leary Spartans 52-41.
“We’re all so excited. Everybody on the team was looking forward to this tournament to get back into things, but we’re not taking anything for granted,” said Burak. “We’re going to play hard and leave everything on the floor.”
The Skyhawks will play the 3A Bisons in Ardrossan in a premier conference exhibition on Monday.
