ST. PAUL - This year's St. Paul Athletics Association (SPAA) junior high basketball champions were crowned on March 2 following two days of action.
On the girls' side, the Glen Avon Panthers once again claimed this year's top spot after an outstanding season. The Racette Raiders came in second place and earned the silver medals.
"The girls had a very successful season and every girl on my team got lots of playing time and improved in many areas," said Glen Avon Coach Robyn Randall.
"We lost one game in the finals at a tournament in Camrose, but won the rest of our games this season."
This year is the fifth straight SPAA championship win for the Glen Avon girls, "and I credit the girls' hard work for that," says Randall.
Boys
On the boys' side, it was the team from F.G. Miller Jr./Sr. High School in Elk Point that battled through for the win, beating out the boys' team from Racette in the finals.
“It was a perfect season,” FGM basketball coach Brett Lindquist said, “and an interesting experiment. With not enough senior high boys for a team, we held combined practices for the junior and senior high, and the Grade 12 boys coached the junior high kids. It was a really interesting opportunity for both teams… and the senior high team couldn’t have done what we did without the Grade 9s.”
Grade 12 student Casey Warawa, who helped coach the junior team along with classmates Marcel Jenkins and Brandon Breen, was excited to see the team defeat Racette and win the SPAA banner, especially with such a small team.
“We ended up with just eight or nine players,” he said, adding that the opportunity to coach the younger counterparts had been valuable. “It got me thinking more about the aspects of the game and it helped to reinforce what was most important.”
