One final night at home the Bashaw Rebels senior basketball squads didn’t quite go as planned.
Forestburg was in town Feb. 21 and defeated both the girls — 47-30 — and the boys 75-70.
For the girls, it was their last game of the season as the club didn’t qualify for the playoffs, while the boys are literally on the road in zones. The Rebels played in Daysland (Feb. 25, result unavailable at press time) with a victory seeing them face the winner of the New Norway-Ryley match Feb. 26 for a place in the regional tournament, which will decide the two teams that make the zone tournament.
Head coach Kyle McIntosh is secure in the fact that if the club can get past these hurdles, they will do well at zones.
“We’re confident we belong at zones because the teams from the east and west that have already qualified are ones we have already beaten. The reality is we are in an incredibly strong league — arguably the strongest in the province for 1A Boys — and our record in league play shows only wins and losses,” he said.
“It doesn’t show that our losses to provincially ranked teams have been close or that we nearly upset the top team in our league.”
One sad note in that final home game, it was the last time playing on home court for four players — Landon Schulte, Grant Golinowski, Jason Resler and Brogan Middleton.
McIntosh inherited three of the four when he began coaching Rebels basketball and much of the success and growth of the program can be attributed to Schulte, Golinowski and Resler.
“The the program was very much so built with them in mind, to the point that these three are our co-captains this year,” he added.
“We knew our program would continue to grow — it’s up to 15 guys, plus an addition coach and stats guys — and continue to become increasingly competitive. Our first season was a rough one, last year was better and this year we look like a contender because we are.”
