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Falcons ready to zone in on hoops

Foothills Falcon success on the gridiron has the school’s basketball team playing a little catch-up. “We have definitely been held up by football,” said Falcons coach Amron Gwilliam on Nov. 27.
Tyler Ziehl is one of the Foothills Falcons adjusting to the hard-court after recently completing the football season.
Tyler Ziehl is one of the Foothills Falcons adjusting to the hard-court after recently completing the football season.

Foothills Falcon success on the gridiron has the school’s basketball team playing a little catch-up.

“We have definitely been held up by football,” said Falcons coach Amron Gwilliam on Nov. 27. “We had three or four kids on the football team and we were waiting for them to get done to really get going.”

The Falcons football squad finished their season with a provincial title on Nov. 26 and last week was the first time Gwilliam was able to get the full hoops squad out for practice.

Foothills finished 1-2 at their first basketball tournament last weekend in Calgary.

The Falcons were 4A South Central Zone champions last season to go along with their ninth Foothills Athletic Council title in 10 years.

Although the Falcons have opted out of the FAC and lost leaders like Mason Sheen and Gavin Millard to graduation, there is still plenty of high-quality basketball to take in at the Falcons’ Nest at the Comp.

The top bird, forward Adam Pahl, the Falcons’ MVP last season, is back for his Grade 12 year.

“Obviously Adam is very talented. He has already had colleges looking at him for when he graduates this year,” Gwilliam said. “But we are expecting all 12 of our kids to contribute in some way.’

Pahl joins four other players who are returning for another year of wearing the Falcons’ burgundy on the senior squad.

“Obviously, all five guys who are back from last year are going to contribute,” Gwilliam said. “Tyler Ziehl is back and he got a lot of minutes last year – he was starting by the end of the season.”

The other returning Falcons are guard Josh Derochie and forwards Peter Baker and Jaden Salter.

“Those guys got a lot of experience last year and that will definitely help them this year,” he said. “Josh is one of the guys we will rely on to control the pace and tempo of the game, make good decisions and distribute the ball around.”

There are also plenty of young birds on the roster.

“We have got a number of kids coming up from our junior team last year,” Gwilliam said.

“Tyson Pitcher and David Kent-Canalejo are two of the main guys coming up.”

There are also a couple of quick bird dawgs to paraphrase the great Everly Brothers.

“We have two kids who are out-of-province and playing baseball with the Dawgs program and tried out and made the team,” Gwilliam said. “We have a lot of new moving parts and a lot of work ahead of us to get everybody on the same page.”

The two J Dawgs on the Falcons squad are LaRon Smith and Bryce Libkie.

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