The Holy Trinity Academy Knights are the reigning queens of the Foothills Athletic Council Senior girls’ basketball. However, a team of Mustangs is making a serious threat to take the four-year champions’ crown.

“I think Highwood is the favourite going into the season,” Knights coach Ken Power said of the High River team. “They have Jaime returning and I think they have a few more returning players than we do. Our goal is to win it again and I think we can.”

Jaime is Highwood Mustang Grade 12 point guard Jaime Norum. She is in her final year at the High River high school and was a member of Team Alberta that won the gold medal at the Canada Summer Games in Prince Edward Island in August.

Mustang coach Curtis Colfer said Norum has the best supporting cast around her in her career at Highwood.

“I think this is the most depth that we have ever had in my coaching at Highwood,” Colfer said. “We have a lot of players who can play different roles.”

Norum will bring the ball up and can shoot like Steve Nash, but the Mustangs aren’t a one-gal team.

Stephanie Skory is returning and will be a shooting guard and also supplying scoring punch for the Mustangs is Katie Waring, a sharpshooter who played for the Alberta Midget team in the summer.

On paper, the Mustangs may look the best, but Colfer said the Mustangs have to prove themselves on the court. He points out that until someone beats the Knights, they are still No. 1

“HTA will be strong again this year,” Colfer said.  “They are so well coached that they will get stronger throughout the year.”

Holy Trinity Academy

The Knights have three returning players including Kirianna Crowe, Dana Hergott and Chantae Karl from last year’s provincial high school bronze medal team.

Power practically needed a program to identify his players at the first practice this fall.

“The past couple of years I had a lot of returning players who knew what was going on,” Power said. “This year, we are keeping things a little bit simpler. Our goal is to be a very, very good team at the end of the season. Last year, we wanted to be an outstanding team from the start.”

The Knights have six Grade 11 players on their roster playing their first year of varsity ball. However, they all have experience winning championships as members of the Holy Trinity Knights JV teams.

“We have a lot of good athletes, it will just take awhile,” Power said.

HTA will try a Grade 10 student, Melissa Bass, at point guard where she will share duties with Monique Ouimet.

Riley Pearson,  also a Grade 10 student, will see action at shooting guard.

HTA started the FAC season on a strong note by downing the Holy Cross Hawks 69-14 Thursday at Okotoks.

Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School

Some coaches will do anything to win. Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots once paid a $500,000 fine for taping opponent’s practices. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were accused of doing the same.

But basketball players doing yoga?

Well that’s what Jane Abboud, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (STS) Senior girls’ basketball coach, is getting her players to do. Abboud has her players doing everything from yoga to balance training to sprints, all in the quest to make a better basketball player.

“I think it is going to make us a faster, stronger team than most of the other teams out there,” said Abboud, who is entering her first year as head coach.

In just a smattering of practices, Abboud has already seen a difference.

“Just in commitment levels it makes a different athlete than just the one who comes out to run lines,” said Abboud. “You really become a well-rounded athlete.”

The STS Spartans have five players returning to a team that had a 3-4 record one year ago. Abboud said the Spartans have a team to make a run this year, not just because of the new training methods.

“They are a group that wants to have fun and we joke,” said Abboud.

Foothills Composite Falcons

Call it basketball Darwinism but Carolyn Lenstra looked at her Falcons team and realized they were going to have to adapt or die.

The Falcons’ head coach knew a height-challenged squad would have to make a full commitment to speed in order to win and selected her team with that strategy in mind.

“If we are not big under the hoop we have to be quick down the court,” said Lenstra.

The senior girls’ Falcons have just two Grade 12s returning from the team that was winless in the regular season last year.

“We have a very fresh face to women’s basketball here at Foothills Composite,” said Lenstra.

Two of the 11 players on the Falcon’s roster are Grade 10s. Lenstra instituted a rule that in order to play varsity basketball in Grade 10, you have to be one of the top five players on the team. The two rookies are according to Lenstra.

Amy Wooldridge, 15, is one of those Grade 10 rookies and she said team practices are focused around running but it will be worth it in the end.

“Since we are not very tall, we have to be able to run pretty fast to beat the other teams,” said Wooldridge.

Wooldridge is familiar with the run-and-gun style having played on short teams before. As well, her father Dave, a community basketball coach with the Okotoks Suns Under-11 girls’ team, has imparted some of his basketball IQ onto his daughter.

“I think we are going to be strong but maybe not against some taller teams,” said Wooldridge.

Notre Dame Collegiate

The Notre Dame Collegiate Timberwolves from High River are still rebuilding in this just their second season of Senior varsity girls’ basketball.

Although the Wolves are young, their coach Jason Reid said he expects them to grow pretty fast.

“We have only one Grade 12 student and a whole whack of Grade 10s,” Reid said. “The jump from Grade 9 to varsity basketball is a big one.”

The T’Wolves were beaten by 30 points by the Strathmore Spartans last week, but at no time did Reid feel his team was run off the floor.

They led after the first quarter and were down by only eight at the half.

“I didn’t feel we were outmatched, but I did think we were out-experienced,” Reid said. “At no time did I feel we didn’t deserve to be on the same court as Strathmore.”

The T’Wolves’ lone Grade 12 player is Kristin Arnell from the Black Diamond/Turner Valley area.

Reid said Arnell is a leader both on and off court for his young squad.

He added the T’Wolves won’t worry too much about their games in December and January in hopes of hitting their stride when the 2A South Central Zones take place at the end of the season.

The other teams in the FAC are Holy Cross from Strathmore and the Strathmore Spartans.