Griffons aiming for OFSAA medal

Make no mistake – this is the route that the Sacré-Coeur Griffons senior girls basketball team intended to travel when they first assembled in September. But that doesn’t mean they will appreciate a second consecutive visit to OFSAA any less.

The Griffons secured the NOSSA A championship banner last weekend in North Bay, overcoming a round robin loss to the Algonquin Barons to bounce the host team in the final, 49-38.

With all of their preparation geared towards ensuring a return trip to the all-Ontario playdowns, the Griffons came much closer than expected to seeing it all slip away.

“As a team, we were much more confident this year (going into NOSSA), maybe too confident,” Grade 11 post Emily Tymchuk said. “We weren’t expecting the competition to be so heated — it was kind of an eye-opener once we got there.
“The first two games were scary, let’s just say that,” added Chantal McMahon, a three point shooting specialist who graduates this year.

Returning a solid core from their 2009 team — which not only advanced to OFSAA, but also picked up wins in their first two games in the tournament before being eliminated by Elliot Lake — expectations were high this fall.

Just three newcomers were added to the fold on the court, with a fourth change behind the bench as long-time local coach Ron Dubuc stepped back, allowing Justin Brogden to put his stamp on the team.

With a couple decades of coaching experience separating the two men, there was little surprise that things looked a bit different when the Griffons stepped out for the 2010 campaign.

“When I think back to last year, the style was a lot less aggressive,” Tymchuk said. “We didn’t full court press — everything is much faster, a much quicker pace.

“It’s not a question of better of worse, just different,” she added.

Another more drastic change occurred right from the gate when this traditional Division II competitor accepted the challenge of battling the SDSSAA elite this year, playing alongside the likes of Lockerby, Lo-Ellen and College Notré-Dame in Division I.

“That was the girls’ choice, I can’t take any credit for that,” Brogden said. “We had kind of a silent vote at the beginning of the year, and every player had to put ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on a piece of paper.” All 10 players voted in favour of moving up a level.

With the loss of Stephanie Giroux and others to graduation, the young ladies had to step up, most notably Tymchuk, the leading scorer for the Griffons through much of the NOSSA tournament.

The Sacre-Coeur players cite team chemistry as a strength. Still, it will take more than being pals on and off the court for the NOSSA representatives to return home as medal winners.

“The first thing is defense,” Tymchuk said. “We play an amazing team defense, if we are all involved in it, if we talk well together.”

“We have to play together,” McMahon added. “Every player has to want it as much as the next person. If we go in with that mentality, we’ll do great.”

And, of course, there is the anticipated benefit that hopefully comes with the Division I experiment.

“We didn’t play an A team until we played NOSSA,” Brogden said of the season which continually pitted this relatively small French Catholic school against primarily AA and AAA opponents.

The team travels to Welland today, earning the fifth seed within the 16-team field and facing the Walkerton Raiders in thieir first round match.

Randy Pascal is the founder of SudburySports.com and a contributing sports editor for Northern Life.