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Captains Valley girls hoops
champs
Kettle Creek caps undefeated season downing Roch Carrier, 46-18, in 'A' final
December 14, 2024
By Rob J. Ross
NORWICH, Ont. - A well balanced attack led the Kettle Creek Captains to their first Valley girls basketball title.
Kettle Creek completed an undefeated run this season, downing Woodstock Roch Carrier, 46-21, in the Thames Valley District School Board elementary girls basketball 'A' final, Friday at Emily Stowe public school.
The Captains handily took care of Glen Carin in their opening game and Old North, in the semifinals.
"We're very fortunate. We have a group of girls that came together three years ago and have been playing together ever since. We got them in the sixth grade and they grew up together," said Captains' head coach Mitch Roy. "We don't have one best player. We have at any moment five girls on the court that we're confident in, we're proud of and not afraid of making a mistake."
Alyssa Luyks led the Captains in the final with 12 points. May Froats and Sydney Smith, both had 10, while Kaye Burgess and Charlie Lale, seven points each.
"When you have that kind of talent with their love for the game and their want to get better, it's easy for us coaches to work with them," said Roy, behind the bench with co-coaches Jeff Anderson, Ethan Georgiev and Olivia Koster.
"Our mentality is that we want to teach them how to play, not just teach them a bunch of plays. We work a lot on skill stuff. We work on shooting, dribbling, passing, layups," added Roy. "That's the benefit of having them for three years. Coming in to their eighth grade year, there is a lot of time that we can save not having to explain stuff."
Practices even included scrimmages against the coaches.
"We challenge them by playing against them. Grown men playing against 13-year old girls is hard, but they beat us as much we beat them," said Roy with a laugh. "The girls have developed a great chemistry, confidence together and trust in each other. They have an incredible sense of spacing and they just go, go, go."
These young teenagers are always full of energy and sometimes the coaches had to calm the team, but never an issue with Roy.
"It's easy to tame a tiger, but it's hard to fire up a kitty cat. That's the expression my grandpa used to use," Roy explained.
The Captains were the class of the Elgin County division, capped with a win over Summer's Corners in the Elgin final, 46-9.
The final game in Norwich did bring mixed emotions.
"It's bittersweet. I'm fighting back tears knowing that I'm not going to coach them again," said Roy, also a teacher at Kettle Creek. "I'll have to find some time to catch a few games next year, because a lot of them will be playing."
During the year, Kettle Creek won tournaments at Emily Carr, Clarke Road and Emily Stowe.
All but one of the nine Captains' players graduate and whether it's Parkside, St. Joe's or Central Elgin, junior basketball will be welcoming several quality players.
"I've never been more confident about the future of high school girls basketball in St. Thomas. It's insane," said Roy. "We're really impressed with the talent we've seen in girls basketball."
Reese Crown scored
a game high 18 points for Roch Carrier in the final and will be attending
Woodstock Collegiate Institute (WCI) next year.
ELGIN COURT
The Elgin Court Coyotes placed fourth at the "A" tournament.
Elgin Court opened with a win over Wilton Grove, before dropping a heart breaker, 20-18 and falling in the bronze medal game to Old North.
In AAA boys, Mitchell Hepburn brought home silver, losing the final to Glen Carin. In AA boys, John Wise also captured silver, dropping the final to Sherwood Fox.
Summer's Corners lost their opening round game in AAA girls. Clara Breton defeated Kensal Park for gold.
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