A new challenge awaits the D.P. Todd junior A boys' basketball team.
"I think it's going to be crazy for an experience," says Hayden Molcak, a Grade 9 post player, about the Trojans' coaches lining up a practice this week at the Northern Sport Centre with the UNBC Timberwolves' women's team. "I don't know what it's going to be like; I've never done it before."
Trojans' coaches Jim Kondratuk and Chase Davidson say they wanted the team to get some tougher competition than they're used to in league and tournament play where they sport a 17-0 record and have won four tournaments this season.
"We're hoping that the women will be a lot more physical than any of the boys teams they've faced and a lot more disciplined," says Kondratuk. "It should force our boys to play a more disciplined game, plus, it's a faster game. It's going to be a great learning experience for the boys."
The practice with the UNBC women comes just days before the Trojans' tip off their home tournament Friday and Saturday. Two weeks ago, the powerhouse team earned the trophy at the Condor Classic, beating the Prince George Secondary Polars 46-25.
Kondratuk says the boys sometimes require an extra incentive to play hard against their northern high school rivals and the senior teams in town have been too busy to give the Trojans an exhibition game.
"They're very talented for their age and extremely hard working," says Kondratuk. "It's been challenging keeping the intensity up in practice at times, but most of them have a goal in mind; knowing that they would like to go on and play at the provincials this year has been very helpful in keeping them focused."
Most of the Trojans' team was together last season when they won the junior A bronze medal in the zone championship, behind Duchess Park and the College Heights
Cougars.
Justin Bennett, a member of the gold-medal winning Team BC basketball team at the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games in Kamloops, enjoyed the Trojans' team chemistry so much he decided a third year of junior A ball would serve him better in the future, even though he was invited to play on the Trojans' senior team.
"The reason I stayed with junior is because I wanted to go out of town and go to provincials to see our competition out of town," he adds.
The Trojans' team is made up with seven Grade 10s and five Grade 9s. The majority of the players started playing together in Grade 7 except Bennett, who attended Highglen Elementary and played against his current teammates who were all at Foothills Elementary.
"It's always interesting [playing with Justin]," says Manni Dhemi, also a three-year member of the junior A Trojans. "I always used to battle with him and try to win the game. We always had a rivalry, but now that we're on the same team we can see each other's skills and get better."
Kondratuk says one way he challenges the Trojans to improve in games when they're ahead is he creates a few new rules.
"Once we do get up we try to play the Grade 9s a bit more to give them more experience," says Kondratuk. "We also challenge the boys in that they have to pass three or four times on offence before they score or we might set a goal that this quarter we don't want the other team to get a single rebound or we don't want them to score any points this quarter."
The coach says the little game within the game challenges and practicing with the UNBC women are all in an effort to help the team if they end up qualifying for the provincial championship.
"If they make it to provincials there'll be a lot of strong teams from the Lower Mainland, the Valley and the Island who will match up equally with our boys," he says.
