Who cares about frankincense and myrrh when you’re able to bring home the gold?
The Canmore Collegiate High School senior boys’ Crusaders came out on top of a home tournament last Saturday (Dec. 14), clinching gold in the final with an 88-50 win over Airdrie’s George McDougall Mustangs.
“We played a team from Airdrie, St. Martin (Friday, Dec. 13), and they weren’t as strong as some of the other teams, so we were just able to shoot the ball,” Crusaders coach Bill Praught said on the team’s first win of the tournament. “We’re a really good shooting team and they were giving us shots and we made them.”
This was the third tournament this season for the Crusaders. They were able to place third in the last, and now have a first place win to help keep up the morale and momentum.
“We’ve been in two tournaments already, this was our ninth game tonight and we’re starting to get legs now,” said Praught. “And these guys over the years, I’ve taught them how to play systems and they execute, and it really helps to have good shooters. We probably have one of the best shooters in Alberta on our team, Luke Praught.”
The Crusaders took down Crescent Heights during their second match 97-76, leading them to the final against George McDougall for the tournament win.
“A lot of teams are saying if you stop him (Praught) then we’re done ... We’ve got really good players who fill roles and know what they’re supposed to do, when to do it and when they can,” Praught said.
“I think that’s the best we’ve ever played together as a team in the six years we’ve played together,” said Crusader Jack Stoliker after the final. “I just hope we can continue doing that through the rest of the season so we can get to provincials.
“I love playing on a team like this, it’s just so much fun. When you play like this you’re able to outcompete teams that are much more athletic than you, which is almost every other team compared to us because we’re such a small team – so when we play like that, we can just outplay everybody.”
