Wow! What a busy week. First was the KVBA bantam camp followed by the BNB Summerfest tournament where I was on the organizing committee plus coaching a team in the men’s developmental division. Now that I’ve gotten through the weekend and had some time to reflect I’ll admit it was a all worth the effort.
This year’s Summerfest tournament was a little different than past years as we “officially” opened it to club teams. We’ve had many club teams before but those teams were mostly last minute fill ins for provincial teams that dropped out. The club teams that caused the most buzz this year were the university and college squads. Not only did these teams play excellent basketball but having all these high profile coaches around definitely added to experience for the younger players.
In the end the team that impressed me the most was the New Brunswick Canada Games Women’s team. On Friday night the girl’s came within a shot of knocking off the a UNB women’s team that also included Devon Lisson. On Sunday the girls were able to avenge that lost by defeating the same UNB team in the finals to take home gold in the Women’s open division.
Watching these girls compete is a real treat. Not only are they running an offensive system based on the CP concepts I love to teach, but they are also a great defensive team.
This should be a team to watch at Summer Games. To advance to the medal round they need to finish in the top two of their pool which includes Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Yukon. Realistically this means they needs to knock off AB or BC and run the table against the other teams. Not an easy task, but if they can compete like they did this past weekend at Summerfest against a very talented UNB squad they will definitely have a chance.