Cochrane High School Cobras senior boys basketball coach Kris Nielson has been busy preparing his squad for the upcoming Rocky View Sports Association season. But, with the season-opening Calgary Classic getting blown away by the early-December storm, he’s been drilling the team hard at practice and picking up exhibition games wherever he can. With the RVSA season opening Dec. 17 for Cochrane High, he’s still gauging where his team fits on the Tier 2 high school hoops landscape.
“Right now there are 400 teams in Alberta that think they’re going to be provincial champions,” he observed. “As we get into it, reality will set in, times will get tough and we’ll have challenges to overcome.”
He has a tourney this weekend (Dec. 13-14) in Canmore to get a better idea of where his team is.
The Cochrane High School Cobras junior-varsity boys basketball team, meanwhile, opened the season on a winning note by taking the Olds High School tournament title Dec. 6-7. The defending tourney champs defeated Acme 92-39 and Olds High 92-22 in round-robin play before beating Rocky View rival Bert Church of Airdrie 64-53 in the final.
“This year’s team is made up of six Grade 9 and six Grade 10 players, with a nice mix of size and skill, and everyone contributed substantially to the weekend’s success,” said Cobras JV boys head coach Jim Forrest.
Next up, the Cobras JV boys are in a tournament at Calgary’s Rundle College on Dec. 13-14, where they are also defending champions.
