Joey Payeur
Black-and-gold was the theme of the day in Kenora on Friday—with an emphasis on the second part.
All three Muskie court teams that finished first in their respective regular seasons walked away with NorWOSSA crowns while the fourth took silver in almost taking down a 15-year dynasty.
The senior boys’ basketball team will have their season continue at least one more week after doubling the Dryden Eagles 64-32 in Friday’s final to win its first league title since 2012.
“The whole point of the season was to win the championship,” noted Muskie co-coach Bryce Coyle.
“It was a goal of ours at the beginning of the year, and I’m glad to see how the kids played really well and responded and earned the gold medal.”
Cole Kowalski, the lone Grade 11 player on the team, came off the bench to provide a game-high 17 points for the Muskies, who now will host the best-of-three NWOSSAA final this weekend against either the St. Ignatius Falcons or St. Patrick Pats.
Game 1 goes Friday at 2 p.m., with Game 2 set for Saturday at 10 a.m.
Game 3 (if necessary) will take place Saturday at 2 p.m.
The winner advances to the OFSAA ‘AA’ championship March 7-9 in Timmins.
The Muskie junior boys, meanwhile, had a tougher time in their final—trailing 28-27 at halftime.
But Fort High used a solid second half to outlast Dryden 61-49 to complete a storybook turnaround after not winning a single league game last season.
“Sometimes it’s not the team with the most skills, but the one with the most heart and they showed that throughout the season,” said first-year coach Darryl Galusha.
“Whenever they got down, they dug deep and did what they needed to do,” he noted.
Aaron Bujold led the way with 30 points. Sekina Scheibler added 15 while Kobi Ward had nine.
On the volleyball court, the top-ranked Muskie junior girls’ squad nearly got washed over by the underdog tidal wave.
After going 0-8 during the regular season, the host Broncos upset the Dryden Eagles (6-2) in five sets in the semi-final, then raced to a 2-0 lead over Fort High in the final.
But the defending champion Muskies found their game in time to rally for a 3-2 victory (16-25, 17-25, 25-19, 25-16, and 15-13).
“The first couple of sets, we were missing a lot of serves and not getting points because of nerves,” admitted coach Shana Windigo.
“I’m really proud of them for coming back, especially with us having almost all Grade 9s out there,” she added.
As for the Muskie senior girls, they nearly wrote their own Cinderella story.
Fort High fought back from a 2-0 deficit to outlast Kenora 3-2 (19-25, 14-25, 25-17, 25-8, and 15-9) in the semi-final.
Then they jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the first-place Eagles and seem poised to end Dryden’s 14-year championship run.
But the Eagles pulled out all the stops to earn a 3-2 triumph (24-26, 19-25, 25-22, 25-22, and 15-12).
“That’s volleyball . . . momentum is absolutely critical and once you lose it, it’s difficult to get it back,” noted Muskie coach Rick Wiedenhoeft.
“Our girls played with their hearts on their sleeve,” he added.
“What more could you ask for?”
The Eagles now advance to the best-of-three NWOSSAA final this weekend against the host Thunder Bay champs.
