You get the feeling, after talking with Cochrane High School Cobras varsity girls basketball coach Randy Peron, that he follows every shot, every pass, every block and every bounce of the ball during his team’s games and practices.
The career hoops coach has taken high-school teams to five league championships in three communities (Winnipeg, Calgary, Cochrane) and, most recently, repeated as Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) champion before coaching his team to a bronze medal at the South Central Alberta Zone 3A championship March 9 in Chestermere.
He is a student of the game who feeds his knowledge to his players.
“You always want to set goals for your team throughout the year, and have them go after it,” Peron says when asked about his coaching strategies for varsity girls basketball players in Grades 10-12. “Right from the get-go, we had a chance to defend (their 2012 league championship) along with four other teams. It was based on making the kids believe in that statement; and how do we get there as a team?”
In his team’s case, you embark on a journey beginning in November and ending up in the bracket-busting chaos that is March Madness.
“The journey is more satisfying than the actual end result,” he says. “Our journey started in November with conditioning and fundamental work.”
While December’s 1-2 league record didn’t indicate a high level of success, it was the Cobras’ tournament play that sharpened them up for their playoff success.
“December, in our last tournament before the break in Acme, we ended up winning. We ended up at the break feeling pretty good about ourselves and the potential to continue to improve to try and get to that final.”
The Christmas and exam breaks slowed the Cobras’ journey through the league. But Peron continued to take his team to events like the McCoy tourney in Medicine Hat, where his squad contested No.-1 ranked teams playing for larger schools. All in an effort to prepare the Cobras for RVSA league playoffs.
“Our successes aren’t in the wins. It’s playing this really high-level competition. I kept telling the kids once we get back to our league, you’ll see how much better we’ve gotten.”
A return to league play netted just one win, 54-51 over Bert Church in January. But Peron continued to see improvement in his team’s suffocating defensive strategy based largely on man-to-man coverage.
Among other things, he taught his players defensive sets with names like “Freak” and “Wall,” to keep opposing coaches guessing while ensuring his team’s 44-points-per-game offence would be enough to win.
It worked.
“OK. I think we’ve turned the corner. I see the synergy being very good,” Peron says of the Cobras’ play late in the season. “The improvement in fundamentals. I think we have a chance to get to the league final.”
The Cobras would beat George McDougall 47-42 in an RVSA league quarterfinal before edging Springbank 49-48 in the semi.
They capped it off with a 47-37 win over Bert Church to take the league banner and advance to the Zones, where they fought for the bronze.
Following the end of the season, Cobras senior Kristen McNab signed a letter of intent with the Medicine Hat College Rattlers, where she will play Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference women’s hoops in 2013-14. Peron is coaching a team at the South Central Alberta 3A Zone all-star game tonight (March 20) in High River. McNab, Alexa Ceh and Jodi Wilde were selected to play in the all-star game.
