The Sacred Heart Saints senior boys’ basketball team visited Moosomin last weekend for their first tournament action of the season and returned home with the ‘B’ side title.
The Saints, led by veteran captain Tannum Wyonzek, dropped their opening game of the tournament to the Oxbow Knights 48-45 before crushing Indian Head 59-25.
The convincing win over Indian Head earned the Saints a spot in the ‘B’ side championship game where they dismantled the Caronport Cougars 50-38 to lay claim to the ‘B’ title.
But while the ‘B’ side title is still impressive, head coach Garrett Karcha feels that the Saints deserved better. “I’m not sure what to expect, although I did expect to win that game on Friday,” offered Karcha. “We were up the whole game, we just gave it away in the last few minutes.
“We had a lot of trouble scoring so that wasn’t the best. On the bright side though, everyone played every game. I had 13 boys with me and they all played in every game and 11 of the 13 scored.”
The fact that all 13 players saw playing time is nice, but what’s more important is the fact that no one looked out of place on the court. “Some of the grade 10’s coming up are looking really good right now actually,” mentioned the Saints coach. “They played really well on the weekend, although so did everyone else.”
And with all of last year’s starters either having graduated or moved away, it’s key for the Karcha to get everyone as many minutes on the court as possible; because right now, he has no idea who will start. “It’s a complete rebuild. All my starters from last year are gone and David Ojo left our school so we have a completely revamped team,” shared Karcha. “I took five grade 10’s and seven grade 11’s this year and a couple grade 12’s. So they are coming in and have to learn a new system, something I’m implementing this year.
“As for starters and that kind of thing, there’s nothing etched in stone other than Tannum, who will lead as a point guard. After that we’ll just roll through and see who is performing well.”
