The Cochrane High Cobras senior boy's and girl's teams are gearing up to host their first Alberta Schools' Athletic Association (ASAA) Provincial Championship, starting on March 15, with the finals taking place on March 17 at all three Cochrane high
The Cochrane High Cobras senior boy's and girl's teams are gearing up to host their first Alberta Schools' Athletic Association (ASAA) Provincial Championship, starting on March 15, with the finals taking place on March 17 at all three Cochrane high schools.
The girl's team is coming off a successful Zone Championships, where they finished the tournament with a bronze medal. The team upended the Springbank Phoenix by a score of 70-19 in order to reach the semifinals against the Strathmore Spartans. The Cobras were handed a heart-breaking one point loss to the Spartans, 61-60. The loss placed Cochrane High into the bronze medal match. The girl's would have a bounce back performance with a 70-41 victory over the Highwood Mustangs to give Cochrane High their first bronze medal in senior girls basketball since 2012. The game was close in the first half with the Cobras leading 18-15, but broke through and outscored Highwood 52-26 the rest of the contest.
Head coach Randy Peron was very pleased with how his team responded in the third place game after a tough defeat earlier in the day.
“It was a tough loss for sure. It showed a lot of character and pride from the girls in order to want to end the tournament on a high and bring a medal home from Zones, ” Peron said.
“The ladies came out flying. We scouted Highwood before the game and noticed some flaws in their execution and then the second half, we made a couple switches defensively … from that point on we took over the game and basically stopped them from scoring in the second half. Especially in the fourth quarter, they only scored one point. For the girls to be able to do that, it showed how much determination they had to win the bronze medal for themselves as well as the school. ”
“I was very pleased with the three games we played overall during Zones. The semifinal loss (to Strathmore) could have gone either way so I'm not disappointed. We played really well and I think we peaked at the proper time … we've been working on this the last four months to make sure we're at our best heading into the Provincial Championships. I think there's a lot of confidence within our team and the girls are feeling good about themselves. ”
The girl's team has missed out on the Provincial Championships the last few seasons and add in the fact that Cochrane is hosting its first championship, Peron said there is a lot of excitement around the town leading up to the first set of games.
“There's a buzz amongst the players, the town and the school. The whole town is involved in hosting these games and the other two high schools are hosting games as well. The whole town is full of excitement and we're ready to welcome in the 24 best teams from the province to our town, ” Peron said.
“This town is going to be a buzz until Saturday night. This town is ready and I think we're ready to play. I know a lot about the majority of the teams we'll be seeing and honestly I think we can compete with everyone of these teams. We may lack in experience because we're a young team, but all the experiences we've had this season with Divisional's, Zone's and tournaments, it's all helped us become a better team with more experience. ”
“We're ready to play against anybody and we're ready to go after it. We're taking the underdog role really personally because we are an underdog team, but we're going to use that to our advantage and hopefully surprise some teams. ”
The girls will come into the tournament as the eighth-ranked team and will play the tournament opening game at 9 a.m. against the ninth-ranked team from H.J. Cody at Cochrane High on March 15.
The boys, who are coming off a somewhat disappointing Zone Championships where they missed the podium, will open their Provincial tournament at 10:45 a.m. on March 15 against the sixth-ranked St. Joseph Celtics.
Ticket prices for the provincial games are $10 a day or $20 for a tournament pass for adults and $5 a day or $10 tournament pass for students and seniors. Children under 12 are free. For additional information visit www.asaa.ca.
