The Town of Cochrane has a new group of ballers in town and they are certainly shooting the lights out on the competition. Kris Nielson, a well known and respected basketball mind here in our relatively small community, decided to start a spring U-13 Cochrane Eagles grassroots program, to give local kids in the community a chance to play basketball all year round against premier talent from Calgary and across Alberta such as CYDC Elite and the Calgary Basketball Academy. "I was evaluating in the Calgary Minor Basketball Association (CMBA) last fall, and I was evaluating the bantam (U-13) boys and they looked like a fantastic group," Nielson said. "So we made the selections for their team and one of the parents usually comes in and coaches. Steven Price, the president of CMBA informed me there was no coach for this team and asked if I wanted to take the opportunity ... it was a no brainer for me. He asked me what division I thought they should be in and because they're such an outstanding group, I figured they'd be able to compete at the top level (Division A)." "So I started coaching this group a little bit in the fall until some parents came on board and then they went through their year and won provincials. So we thought we should keep this going so we started this up and got them in a spring league and that's where we are currently." Nielson said the turn out and feedback so far from the group and their families has been really positive in the early part of the campaign. "It's been exceptional so far. We're not a very big group ... This is their first spring playing together, but they've been playing since September. This is a group that isn't entirely that (fall) bantam team as there's a few other kids that came on board," said Nielson. "Those kids were either on the 'B' team or weren't on either of the teams. So this group has kind of been put together for this spring specifically. They're all really competitive basketball kids ... and the difference between a basketball kid and someone who just plays basketball is how committed they are to the sport." "They're trying to shoot any chance they can, going into three-on-three tournaments on their own, anything they can to make themselves better." The Eagles have proved they can play with the big boys, as the group took part in the Visions Basketball Academy Kick Off Tournament on May 5 and 6, one where more than 100 teams from across the province show up to compete. Cochrane blew out the Medicine Hat Golden Hawks 94-18 in the first round and then came out strong against the Calgary Rise Up Hoops, pushing an early 20-point lead before finishing the game 52-36. The Eagles second round win set up a date in the championship round against CYDC Elite. It was an exciting game, with Cochrane getting contributions from everybody on the team resulting in a 52-49 victory. "I went into the tournament thinking we could do quite well based off the couple exhibition games prior to the tournament. We played the Calgary Basketball Academy (CBA) a few weeks ago and we beat them ... in fact we were up quite big for most of the game," Nielson said. "I knew we had a good team so I figured we needed to be in the 'A' division for sure. Just based on the talent level that we have, we have some very talented kids. (Winning tournaments) doesn't happen very often in Cochrane ... I've been coaching for a long time now and this is the first time we've beaten the CYDC Elite team. We tied them in the past (in 2015) but it doesn't happen very often to be at the very top of the of the basketball community. It was a very good moment for us and the community of Cochrane."
