Article By: Brian Smiley
The St. John's College Green Eagles senior girls basketball
team hasn't skipped a beat to start the 2015 season.
After winning silver last year at the Ontario Federation of
School Athletic Associations AAA championship, St. John's has started its most
recent campaign by winning two straight tournaments.
"It's been a great start especially being a late start
to the school year," said head coach Matt Lynch, whose team joins the rest
of the senior and junior teams from Brant County in starting the regular season
on Thursday.
He noted that his team had only three practices to prepare
for the Purple and White Tournament two weekends ago. "Everybody was in
the same boat but it was a nice surprise to see the girls play as hard as they
did and get the result they did."
When it comes to success, the Green Eagles have enjoyed
their fair share for almost a decade.
Last season was the eighth straight year Lynch and
co-coaches Steve Van Leeuwen and Gina Tarantello have taken a senior girls team
to OFSAA. Over that time, St. John's has brought home five medals, including
one gold, three silvers and an antique bronze (fourth).
The team lost a pair of key players from last season in
Megan Thompson and Jen Garner. But when the Eagles got together to start this
season, the coaches were happy with the players on the court.
"We were excited with what we saw in practice,"
Lynch said.
"It's always difficult those first few practices. We
all know our plays. So, scrimmaging against each other, you don't really see
what is actually there.
"So when we got out there and played against teams we
hadn't seen before it was great to see some of the things we've been working on
in practice play out in a game."
At the Purple and White Tournament, St. John's went through
the field, winning gold by defeating Barrie Innisdale in the final. The
Innisdale team featured three players over six feet and a guard who played on
the national cadet team two years ago.
Without much height, the Eagles showed they could play
against a taller team and be successful.
"We're pretty much all the same size," Lynch said
of the players on his roster. "Our guards are probably some of our tallest
players.
"The size matchups may present some difficulties but
the fact that we have so many good guards present difficulties for some teams,
too. We find other ways."
St. John's, who also won the Brantford Tip-Off Tournament
last weekend, has a roster that consists of seven returnees, two junior
graduates and a former junior player who returns to the court after taking a
year off.
The Green Eagles will rely heavily on guard Kendra Van
Leeuwen, who has made a verbal commitment to attend George Washington
University in the U.S. on an NCAA Division I scholarship. She is one of the
best female basketball players to come out of Brant County.
"Kendra is a player who makes everyone around her
better," said Lynch. "She might not be on the list of the leading
scorers in some of the games we've played so far but she's definitely a part of
almost every single play. It's both ends of the floor.
"She leads by example. She draws so much attention from
the other team that she opens things up for her teammates.
"She always makes the right decision, the right play
and plays so hard."
Lynch will also have some terrific experience from
fifth-year players Leah Coon and Erin Dubois as well as Van Leeuwen and Maddi
Cohoon.
"Kendra and Maddi are our captains," said Lynch.
"They provide awesome leadership on and off the floor."
The team also has a pair of Grade 10 students in Alaina
McMillan and Kaitlyn Overeem. McMillan played on the team last season while
Overeem was a junior.
Both will be huge contributors.
"It's hard to believe that they're in Grade 10,"
Lynch said. "It's a jump to go from junior basketball to senior basketball
and they seem to have made that transition pretty seamlessly.
"They seem to be fitting in to everything that we're
doing and buying in to the things we want to do."
Other members of the team are Alex Girardi, Ashley Derks,
Cassidy Lacey and Emily Dignan.
With the elimination of 'AAAA' this season, St. John's will
be competing against four good teams in Assumption College, Brantford
Collegiate Institute and North Park Collegiate for one of two berths to the
Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association 'AAA' championship.
"I think they have potential to (make it)," Lynch
said of his team, which will concentrate on team defence this season.
"OFSAA, CWOSSA, BCSSAA are always in the conversation
but the real goals are to get better as a team, to get better individually, to
come together as a group and take care of what we need to every single night
whether it's a practice or a game.
"(If we) take care of the small-term goals they lead to
bigger things."
Paris District High School and Pauline Johnson Collegiate
are Brant County's 'AA' schools.
YTD: 3-0
