Morinville Road Runners off to provincials

By Morinvillenews.com Staff

Morinville – After five years of rumbling up and down the court throughout the Edmonton area, the Morinville Road Runners will be sending a team to provincials. The 11 bantam aged girls (11-12 years old) have qualified for provincials to be hosted in Calgary Mar. 18-19. The girls are currently the top- rated team in the Edmonton area with three wins and no losses in the latest tiering round. The players are local to either Sturgeon County or Morinville.

Coach Serge Froment said the team is made of some superb athletes who are all great kids from great families.

“These girls are very easy to coach and their basketball passion is off the charts,” Froment said. “This is a great opportunity for young ladies. Imagine playing in provincials at 11 and 12 years old. They actually energize me.”

Joining Froment in coaching the Road Runners this season is a former high school basketball player from Texas, Shelley Trabysh.

“Coach Trabysh has been a great addition to the team this year,” Froment said. “She has a strong belief that the girls need a mastery of all basketball fundamentals. Dribbling, shooting, passing and rebounding fundamentals are reviewed at every practice and she has a great sense for helping tweak a player’s shot or position to help them succeed.”

The latest tiering round has seen the girls score 150 points while giving up a mere 77 points in three games. Froment said they are almost doubling their opponents every time they walk on the court.

“They play a man-to-man (girl-to-girl) full court, high-pressure trapping defence used at every opportunity possible,” he said. “The girls enjoy the up-tempo play and frequent substitutions as it keeps them in the game. This kind of success happens when fundamentals have been worked on for years. Players understand and completly buy into the system and a passion for improving is the long term goal. They love playing and it shows.”

Froment said the girls are particularly active this time of year with all players playing for their school teams and the Morinville Road Runners.

The Road Runners play in Edmonton Youth Basketball Association (EYBA) with most games played on Saturdays.

“The EYBA is a very well organized league,” Froment said. “We play three tiering rounds to ensure all teams play against teams at their level. That is followed by a playoff round within your last division of 5 to 6 teams. That decreases lobsided games for an entire season and lets kids improve while winning their share of games.”

This year the girls are rated number 1 out of 19 teams playing in the Bantam age group and Froment said he beleives great things are yet to come for the team.

“This is a special group of athletes and I believe you will hear a lot about them in the years to come,” he said. “I feel lucky to be surrounded by such great kids and their families.”

Parents whose children are interested in playing basketball in the upcoming season are asked to contact Serge Froment at 780-939-3885.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email