Both the Cochrane Cobras boys and girls basketball teams had a very successful season when they capped of their league play on March 8 and 9 at the Zone Championships.
The senior boys team had quite the run this year in the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA), finishing the regular season with a 4-1 record which was good for second place in the league behind the first place Chestermere Lakers. The Cobras managed to score 416 points while only allowing 347 en route to the league playoffs. The Cobras earned a bye to the semi-finals where they eventually defeated the Bert Chuch Chargers 78-56 and claimed the gold medal with a 77-64 victory over Chestermere, ending their undefeated season. The Cobras wrapped up their league play, with the Zone Championships, where they won a silver medal to clinch a berth in the Provincial Championships on March 14 in Brooks.
“We played within our system, played as a team and it was tough gritty defence – that was the difference for us today,” said Cochrane co-head coach Patrick Court of his team's gold medal performance in an interview with Rocky View Weekly's Scott Strasser. “That’s something we preached all year – owning the one-on-one battles and helping out your teammates when you need to.”
On the girls side, The Cobras had a banner year which was highlighted by upsetting the five-time defending champion Chestermere Lakers in convincing fashion by a score of 60-45. The Cobras finished the season in second place, with a 5-1 record, outscoring its opponents by 124 points.
"Overall this season was very successful. We had goals coming in and we achieved all of them except for one ... our number one goal coming in was to win the league championship. That was something we focused on and took pride in. We dominated Divisionals, we beat everyone by 15 points or more and we were prepared for anything that came our way," said Cobras head coach Randy Peron.
"To beat the five-time defending league champions in the finals was very important and very gratifying considering we controlled the majority of the game with our offence and defence so they'll never be able to take that away from us."
The gold medal victory secured the team a spot in Zones coming in as the fourth-ranked team behind Highwood High School based out of High River, Brooks and cross-town rival Bow Valley. The Cobras lost by six points to Highwood in the semi-finals before defeating Bow Valley in the third place game 60-35 to claim the bronze medal.
"We ended up being the fourth-ranked team behind those other three teams and we knew if we wanted to advance, we'd have to beat the number one team in Highwood earlier in the tournament rather than later in the finals. It was a great game, a one point game for the first three quarters and then we missed too many shots inside and then ended up losing to them by six points," Peron said.
"We ended up playing for bronze against Bow Valley who was the second-seed coming in, but I didn't want to put to much emphasis on the fact we were playing Bow Valley because they were in our town, I just wanted the girls to focus on the bronze medal ... regardless of who we were playing."
"I knew what Bow Valley liked to do so our game plan worked well where we dominated Bow Valley from tip off, right until the end of the game. It showed that they might have been the second-ranked team coming in, but we were the victors for the bronze medal. Having the players leave the season with the win and the medal was far more important than who they were playing and I'm so happy they succeeded."
Bow Valley on the other hand, also had a very successful season improving from their 5-15 regular season and tournament record last season to an overall record of 25-8 including a first-place finish in league play. The Bobcats outscored their opponents 309-213 en route to a 5-1 record. At the Zone tournament, they lost to the eventual champions from Brooks 43-42 in the semi-finals before losing to Cochrane in the bronze medal game.
"We lost to Cochrane in the zone bronze medal game when we couldn’t keep our starters in the game. All 5 starters had to sit with major foul problems from midway in the second quarter on when we had a 20-15 lead. We quickly lost the lead although tied it back up in the 3rd when the starters got back into the game but they soon got into even more foul trouble and we couldn’t stay with a talented Cochrane team without them on the floor. 3 of them played less than 10 minutes in the game before fouling out. It was the first time all year we had that kind of foul trouble to so many players and we simply can’t compete with any team in the zone handicapped like that ... just one of those things," said Bobcats head coach Kris Nielson.
"We had an amazing group of young women who had a ton of fun and it showed – on the court, in our practices and outside of basketball. They've had a great year and have learned what it means to commit, how to work hard and be physically and mentally strong, how to work together as a team, how to lead, how to perform under pressure and how to compete. Considering they're going to turn pro in something other than basketball, these are skills they can take forward with them to the next chapter of their lives and will serve them well in their careers as they move on after high school."
