The St. Timothy Thunder senior boys and girls basketball teams were thrust back into action on Jan. 9 after their long Christmas break. The girls defeated the Lord Beaverbrook Lords 48-38 in a tight game on home court. The win pushes the Thunder’s record to 2-1 on the season.
Thunder girls head coach Leo Keefer is happy with how the season has gone so far and how his team was able to respond with a victory after a few weeks off.
“Things have been going really well since then (the Cochrane Classic). We’ve been getting really great leadership and play out of the Grade 12s, and I think we’ve had a lot of success because of them,” Keefer said.
“With having the (Christmas) break, we only had one practice before our game against Lord Beaverbrook. You just have to hope everybody shows up for practice on that first morning back and try not to do too much. You have to let the girls get the feel for the ball back.”
“It’s really in their hands, there isn’t much you (as coaches) can do about it. We’re really fortunate that we had a good game that first night back.”
Keefer said he thinks his team has what to takes top compete for a city championship banner.
“We have seven games left and I think that we’ve realized that we can compete with every team in our league,” Keefer said.
“We’re really hoping to finish within the top five (in the standings) and have a first home playoff game. I think, as a team, that’s our goal from here on out.”
The Thunder boys have had a tough start to their season, but got tallied first win on Dec. 19 against the Queen Elizabeth Knights, where the Thunder took home a gritty 61-60 victory.
“We had a busy December. The boys played really well in league play and the Cochrane Classic, and they definitely showed the improvement I was hoping to see … we won our last game before the break (against Queen Elizabeth), which was really awesome to see … it came down to foul shots in the end but the boys persevered,” said Thunder boys head coach Katlyn Nelson.
“We had a tough game coming back from the break against Robert Thirsk, definitely a lot of things we need to work on and get the boys back up to speed but they’ve been really positive. We’ve had a couple of bad injuries, so that was difficult to deal with but everyone is finally healed up and ready to go.”
“It was awesome to see them get rewarded with that first victory. They were really, truly fantastic. The parents watching that game were happy, former students who were there were cheering … it was really great to see the boys’ attitude coming off the court, showing that sportsmanlike attitude towards the other team as well.”
Nelson also commented on the fact that her team has a busy upcoming month and is looking to build on recent success.
“February is going to be a stacked month for us. We have one or two games every week, two tournaments, one in Black Diamond and the other in St. Gabriel in Chestermere,” Nelson said.
“The boys are probably the best team I’ve coached in terms of positive attitude, They’re really willing to learn and they bring lots of stuff to the table. They have a lot of things they want to try out in terms of plays.”
The next game will be a tournament this weekend at Heritage Christian Academy in Calgary, while the girls will travel to Chestermere to play the St. Gabriel Guardians on Jan. 16.
