Lucas Punkari
After finishing up a pre-season tournament in Thunder Bay with a 2-2 record, Muskie senior girls’ head coach Dan Bird was pleased with the overall play of his team, but felt that some valuable lessons were gained by his troops heading into the NorWOSSA campaign.
“We played four different teams during the weekend and we got to see some different offense and defenses, so we got quite a bit out of it,” Bird said.
“We met up with a very well disciplined team from Timmins in our second game, and that’s something that we took a lot of and talked about in our first practice back here on Monday afternoon.
“I really liked the progression though from the girls out there, and we improved a lot in each game,” he added.
The black-and-gold finished up their pool play with a 1-1 record after a win over Westgate (Thunder Bay) and a loss to Timmins, and then finished up the weekend a split in the consolation round as they defeated Dryden but fell to Kenora.
With their pre-season schedule now complete, the Muskies are now preparing for their first league game of the season here on Tuesday, as they will play host to the Dryden Eagles at 12:00 p.m.
“What we’re focussing on in our practices this week is how much that we need to work more on the fundamentals both as individuals and as a team,” Bird stressed.
“One of the things that was really noticeable in watching the top teams play this weekend was how much more fundamentally sound that they are in comparison to where we are at.
“I’ve been telling the girls that we can be there as well, but we just need to work on those fundamentals,” he added.
Tuesday will also mark the first game of the season for the junior girls team at 1:30 p.m. against Dryden, as their pre-season tournament in Thunder Bay over the past weekend was cancelled.
“The girls were a little bit down about not being able to play in Thunder Bay, so they are really anxious to see how they stack up with the rest of the competition in the league,” coach Mike Kruger explained.
“Alyssa [Holliday] and I have been working with the girls here over the last week in fine-tuning the offense for the upcoming game here along with the strategies on defense, and the girls have been working hard and it’s starting to come together for them,” he added.
