Submitted by:
Shayne Yaschyshyn |

The SVRSS Tigers Varsity Girls Basketball team motored to Winnipeg on March 15th to participate in the 2016/17 MHSAA AAA Varsity Girls Provincial Championships at Calvin Christian Collegiate.
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The trip was chronicled by Zoe Winters on Twitter, which kept the team in high spirits. The Provincial championship is a 8 team straight draw tournament with the Tigers going in as the number 4 seed. This placed them against the number 5 seed Gordon Bell Panthers for their first game on March 16th.

After some important shopping that allowed the team to pick out some prom and grad dresses, the Tigers came out focused and played a very structured game on offense and defense which frustrated the Panthers. The Tigers jumped to an early lead in the first scoring 24 points and holding the Panthers to 11. The Tigers continued this play in the second quarter and at the half the Tigers were up 48 – 26. The Panthers came out with some increased energy in the third but the Tigers continued to play strong and going into the fourth quarter the Tigers had a comfortable lead 64 to 37. The Panthers came out strong and kept up with the Tigers in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late as the Tigers cruised to a 79 – 51 victory. “ We knew the first game would be important to win so we could get on to the championship side of the draw” said Head Coach Shayne Yaschyshyn, “we came out strong and executed very well and met our goal in winning the game.” The Tigers player of the game was Hannah Kitch. The win put the next game on March 17th for the Tigers against the University of Winnipeg Collegiate Wesmen who seeded number 1 and have held the number 1 ranking the entire season.

Thursday evening the Tigers enjoyed getting dressed to the nines for the banquet that included guest speaker Mathias Goosen from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Coaches Shayne Yaschyshyn and Ian Kitch were impressed that they were in the presence of a member of the best football team in the CFL.

The Tigers started the second day of the tournament by taking in a tour at the Royal Canadian Mint with our expert guide Siscely Konkin. After the tour the Tigers motored to Boston Pizza where they were provided a chance to learn what not to do when providing customer service as well as, what to do to satisfy a customer from a restaurant manager. After this almost two hour escapade to eat, the Tigers arrived at the Calvin Christian gymnasium to prepare for a tough game against the Wesmen.

The Wesmen came out strong and took an early lead thanks to the play of Robyn Boulanger. After the first the Tigers were trailing 19 to 9. The Tigers tightened up their defense in the second quarter but the Wesmen continued to play their strong game and after the second quarter the Wesmen were up 34 to 18. The Tigers made some adjustments in the third but the Wesmen continued their strong play and after three the Tigers were down 24. The Tigers fought back in the in the fourth but the deficit was too great and the final score ended up 69 – 42. “The Wesmen are a well-coached and talented team,” said Assistant Coach Ian Kitch “You can tell that these young ladies play a lot of ball together by the way Robyn can find them and make blind passes.” “The Wesmen are a nice team to play against as they move the ball really well” added Yaschyshyn, “we have had a lot of coaches and referee’s tell us that we move the ball well and we do, but the Wesmen are at a different level.” Player of the game for the Tigers was Sara Henkelman. Then loss relegated the Tigers to the third place game against the St. Norbert Celtics on Saturday at noon.

After the game and after at least an hour of deliberation the Tigers decided that ordering pizza and all the fixings would work for half the team while the coaches and a few players took in the all you can eat ribs at the Pony Corral, a challenge was on that Coach Kitch would be able to out eat Coach Yaschyshyn, Coach Kitch put forward a valiant effort but could not prevail. Later that evening the Tigers challenged an escape room at Enigma Escapes. The team was pumped to challenge the Cyberspace room and with 17 seconds left in the one hour time limit were successful in escaping from the room.

After the loss to the Wesmen and the fact that they had lost the chance to cause both of their coaches to be bald going into spring league play, the Tigers came out a little sluggish against the Celtics, but picked it up half way through the first quarter, after the first the Tigers trailed 22 to 17. In the second the Tigers spotted the Celtics a 15 point lead at the half way point of the quarter and then battled back to go into the half down by 2 with the score 39 to 37 for the Celtics. The Celtics came out on fire in the third and the Tigers struggled to get some buckets. That coupled with some players getting into foul trouble, the Tigers found themselves trailing the Celtics by 14 points, 56-42. With some of the Tiger starting players in foul trouble the Tigers struggled in the fourth quarter. At one point the Tigers were in a situation where one of their starting players that had been sitting since the third quarter due to having four fouls, was not being able to play her due to a phantom fifth foul that even the St. Norbert fans were contesting. In the end the Tiger lost the game 74 to 50 and claimed fourth place provincially. “The game against U of W really took its toll on us and we couldn’t overcome the loss” said Yaschyshyn, “With a team that only has 3 grade twelve players we were the youngest team at provincials, the experience we picked up is going to be an advantage next year.” “As coaching staff we are proud of what we achieved this year and we are looking forward to next year”, added Assistant Coach Paula Shevernoha. Player of the game was Ali Henkelman.

A dejected group left the Calvin Christian Gymnasium for the long ride home, but the group should be proud of what they did, meeting their goal of not only getting to provincials, they went in as a fourth seed and proved that they deserved the fourth or even a better seeding. Looking forward the current team is going to have three players graduating, first year player Alana Bushenlonga who proved she could play varsity basketball and two key components to the successful season the Tigers enjoyed, Sara and Ali Henkelman who showed leadership and mentored the young team all season. “While we will miss the leadership of these graduating players, they have provided a sound foundation for the returning players to mentor a very talented group of athletes that are in grade 9 and 10 who played on the Junior Varsity team this year”, commented Yaschyshyn, “the athletes coming into the program next year look very promising and some of the current grade 9’s may be able to crack the varsity roster next year.”

“It takes a lot of support to allow these athletes to participate and represent our Valley and the SVRSS and I would like to thank all that provide the ability for our youth to represent our community in a positive light”, commented Yaschyshyn, “I have received numerous comments on how our athletes presented themselves in a mature and respectful manner, which is a credit to these young ladies.” I would also like to thank all of the financial supporters of the SVRSS Basketball program, the parents / grandparents (aka Drones) that attended our games and the SVRSS Tigers Varsity Girls Basketball team for being who you are,” concluded Yaschyshyn.