The Mallaig Stingers handball teams clinched zone championships in Bonnyville on Saturday, with both the boys and girls teams going undefeated to set the stage for provincials, which will be hosted by Ecole Mallaig School at Glen Avon and St. Paul Regional High School this weekend.
There was a good deal of speculation surrounding zones, as neither the boys or girls team had managed to take part in a competitive game prior to the tournament, but head coach Ian MacGillivray said he was very impressed with what he saw.
“I am very pleased with the results today,” he said. “What I saw was that I have lots of kids who can score and that is good for us, because you don’t beat teams with one all-star.”
The girls Stingers marched to victory with a 12-8 win over Notre Dame in the first game, and closed out the best of three with a 12-5 win to claim the title of zone champions.
The boys team first met up with Bonnyville Centralized High School, defeating the team 30-7 before taking out Notre Dame in similar fashion, 25-7.
The Stingers met up with BCHS again in the finals and improved on the overall goal differential by defeating the Roadrunners 32-8.
Both teams are now pumped and ready to take on some of Alberta’s top handball squads as they host provincials this weekend, and while Mallaig will be taking on Old Scona, the number one ranked team in the province, in the opening match up, Stingers’ goalkeeper Michael Guilbault says that’s just the way they like it.
“I think every team is just going to get better as the tournament goes on, so to play the number one seeded team first, we wouldn’t have it any other way,” Guilbault said. “We’re pretty excited as a team, we’re pumped up going into provincials and I think we can do pretty well.”
MacGillivray agreed that taking on the number one seed in the opening game has its benefits, but pointed out that Old Scona will be entering the tournament with a lot of game experience under its belt.
“Old Scona will probably play 35 games before provincials,” he said. “It’s going to be tough competition but that’s the way it was the first year we were there, and I said we might as well play the number one team first.”
MacGillivray added that he was impressed by the way that both teams used zones as a chance to fine tune their skills and strategies, which will be integral come provincials.
“At the half (in the finals) I told the guys, because they always like the total score, I said that’s not our goal, we need to not let them score as many goals as they did in the first half. Our total doesn’t matter we need to pick up our defense, and I was happy that we did. To me if you play great defense, you’ll win a lot of games,” he said, adding that the girls team showed a great deal of development in their first ever pair of games.
“They’re learning the game, so you see the way the guys, the girls are still in the process of learning that. From the first game to the second game, they played a lot better.
Marcel Feland of the boys team said that in-game experience definitely provides a number of benefits, but he is confident that the Stingers can string together some victories this weekend.
“Obviously the more you play, the more you know. It’s a lot different from practice to a game, so a game situation is always the best way to learn,” he said. “We were pretty nervous of what to expect because we hadn’t played a game with this whole squad yet, but judging by how it went, I think we all have good chemistry.”
Provincial championships open at St. Paul Regional High School and Glen Avon at 9 a.m. on Friday morning, with the girls team opening its tournament at 10:15 a.m. followed by the boys at 11:30 a.m.
Both the boys and girls tournaments will see eight teams split up into two groups. The top two teams from each group will advance to the championship round on Saturday, while the bottom two teams will compete in the consolation round.
