Tough competition is bringing the best out of the Foothills Falcons.
The Falcons senior girls extended their run of podium finishes at tournaments to three in a row with a bronze medal secured at the Cougar Classic in Cardston highlighted by wins over the hosts and powerhouse Raymond Comets.
“We got the trifecta as the draw turned out with Raymond, Cardston and Magrath,” said Falcons girls coach Montana Romeril. “Raymond is the three-time reigning provincial champion so to take them down was very exciting for everybody.
“It’s a compliment to them that everyone wants to play them and beat them.”
Foothills bested Raymond 57-41 in its opener, lost the semifinal 79-64 to Magrath and rallied to chase the hometown Cougars by a 72-50 score.
Zya Kerrison, Laila Selk and Savanah Sommerfeldt were player of the games for Foothills.
“Magrath is super well coached, and they had a good game plan against us,” Romeril said. “We bounced back and beat a good Cardston team by 20. It was good basketball and to me that’s the best basketball you can get sometimes down there.
“It makes us better to play those southern Alberta teams.”
Romeril, an Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference Hall of Fame inductee earlier this year in recognition of her impact as a St. Mary’s University Lightning guard, said it was an easy choice to step into a coaching role alongside Lana Gwilliam this season.
“I couldn’t say no to that because I know they’re a great group of girls,” Romeril said. “They work super hard and it’s been a great start so far.”
The Falcons girls are coming off their best season in program history with a fourth-place finish at the 4A provincials in March.
A number of key players are back to build on that foundation, including third-year players Sommerfeldt and Ashleigh Baker.
“They are very competitive,” the coach added. “We’re taking stuff from last year and running with it and fine-tuning and we’ve had some good pick-ups of Grade 11s and Grade 10s.
“We talk about how this group is a top team in Alberta and we can compete for a medal. We want to be in the final four in Calgary in March and they’re willing to put in that work.”
The Falcons boys also brought home the bronze from Cardston, their third straight competition with a top-three finish.
“I really think that our boys are ultra-competitive once they step on the floor and are just really trying to find a way to win,” said Falcons head coach Amron Gwilliam. “I really love how they’ve bought in to the new concepts we’ve been teaching them this year.
“We’ve been right there with some of the top teams in the province, which has been nice.”
Foothills took out Edmonton’s Holy Trinity 73-62, took a 78-53 loss to Cardston in the semifinal and soundly defeated Magrath 97-60 in the bronze medal match.
“We were a bit inconsistent, the second one wasn’t our best game, but I was really happy with how the boys responded after our loss,” Gwilliam said. “They played one of our better games of the year and it was nice to see them make those adjustments we needed to.”
Birk Placsko, Jeremiah Baker and Henry Fairbanks took home player of the game nods.
“There’s probably three or four guys every game who could be our player of the game, a lot of kids are playing really well,” the coach added. “I think our depth this year is our strength.”
