SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Medicine Hat High Hawks lift the championship trophy after winning the RIT at Western Canada High School on Feb. 10.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat High Hawks senior boys basketball team looks to keep an already magical season going with zones starting tonight.
The Hawks, who finished the year with a 24-4 record, 9-1 in league play and ranked No. 1, are in Lethbridge taking on the LCI Rams after receiving a first-round bye.
Head coach Chad Watson has coached winning teams in the past, leading a 29-3 squad to a league and zone championship with a third-place provincial finish in 2014. This year’s team is deeper than any other he’s coached before.
“We roll six, seven guards a night at teams, so when you have that much depth, you’re actually able to create a lot of chaos because we can stay fresh throughout the whole game,” Watson said. “With our big men, it’s funny, between Arinze (Aniagu), Jada (Bolok) and Kyle (Bertram), those three are probably the three best posts in the South combined.
“We have a fourth post, Ira Hozack, who’s an unbelievable post but because of the strength of the other three and his size, his minutes are limited. So we have so much depth, both guard wise and post wise, that’s what’s really special about this group, and years before we’ve never had this much depth.”
Watson says the team is also the most tight-knit he’s ever coached, with a group having played together since Grade 5. Others have joined in the years since and he says they play a lot of basketball together in the summer. It’s a connection Aniagu says has made the year even more fun.
“This is the best year I could have asked for with these guys, it’s just been having fun,” Aniagu said. “We all like each other, we share the ball. Everybody’s contributing, having fun, so it’s just easy basketball.”
They also have eight Grade 12 students, including Aniagu, who has committed to play at the University of Calgary this fall to study engineering. Another Grade 12 on the team, Trey Watson, has the distinction of experiencing the senior year with his dad as head coach and sharing the time with him, even if it means some extra pressure comes his way.
“I like it, he’s hard on me but it’s good,” Trey said.
It’s a connection Watson says has been special, getting to coach his son and share the same passion with him. He says Trey has been beating him one-on-one since his Grade 10 season, which hasn’t been easy to accept for the former basketball player.
“He gets the short end of the stick because when the team is playing bad, I’m on Trey, so he’s that guy who does get a large piece of the pie, so he has to understand that his job as the point guard is to be the leader, to be the floor general out there,” Watson said.
“We have so much love for each other, we care so much. We come in here and we shoot nonstop, we spend all the time, pretty much 90 per cent of our conversations are about basketball. So having him play for me, it’s a very, very proud father moment.”
As they head into their first zones matchup, Watson says the focus is on playing defence first and at a fast pace, which leads to offence. With the special group they have, this Hawks team is working their way toward winning the school’s first senior boys basketball provincial title.
It’s a goal that is welcomed but Watson says can’t be thought of yet.
“We’re going to take it one game at a time, Thursday is going to be our main focus and we’re gonna see what happens after Thursday,” Watson said. “Because if you look too far beyond, sometimes you’re not in the present, and sometimes that’s when you’re sitting in a locker room crying because you were upset.”
Hawks Sr. Girls open Zones with win
The Hawks Sr. Girls team won their first game in their 4A zones draw.
The Hawks beat the Cardston Cougars 50-32 Tuesday night at Hat High.
They’re also in action tonight, facing the No. 1 ranked Raymond Comets.
