Simcoe’s Cinderella story continues
The Governor Simcoe Redcoats senior boys basketball team’s rags to riches story continued Thursday with a 47-44 victory over the visiting Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs in the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association AA final.
The victory was anything but easy. Simcoe led 11-9 after one quarter, Churchill was on top 25-18 at the half and the two squads were tied 30-30 heading into the final quarter. The Redcoats led 42-41 with 1:43 left in the game and were able to hold on to the victory by going 5-6 from the free-throw line down the stretch.
“We have been building from Day 1 since I came back to the school. This is my first year back and a lot of it has been the guys trying to learn how to win,” Simcoe head coach Shaun Feor said. “We have been puzzling things together practice by practice, week by week and we came out on top today in a tough, tough game.”
Last season, the Redcoats were winless in NRHSAA play with their lone victory all season coming in the Tribune tournament.
“This is a real Cinderella story this year,” Feor said. “Winning is the thing that makes guys buy in and believe and early in the year we were taking our lumps but we were winning some real close games too. Once we started winning a few games, they started buying in and believing.”
Helping the Redcoats get to the next level this season was having Ari Steenhuis join the team after The Standard tournament.
“He made an immediate impact,” Feor said. “As we saw today, when teams are keying in on Budgie (Noah Budgell), we have another guy to lean on and that is Ari. He is going to get us some buckets, defend and all of that.”
The 17-year-old didn’t join the team until late because the St. Catharines Athletics junior A and B lacrosse player was focusing on his lacrosse training.
The Grade 12 student is clearly focused on lacrosse.
“I am hoping to go D1 and from there go pro somewhere.”
But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t get talked into playing some basketball for the Redcoats.
“I was going all in for lacrosse and was going to train through the winter but it was cold and I was missing the ball and I was missing the boys,” he said. “The boys were harassing me to come back and play and I was glad too.”
Steenhuis points to a few main reasons for the squad’s turnaround.
“It’s commitment. Everyone is committed this year in games and practice and we have a great coach. He coached at Niagara College and he knows what he is talking about.”
He feels the turning point came when the Redcoats defeated the Bulldogs in their home gym.
“From there on, we knew we had something.”
Steenhuis is an Ari-of-all-trades for Simcoe.
“I just give 110 per cent on the floor, get to the basket, put up a couple of points and keep the boys up.”
He finds basketball a great training tool for lacrosse.
“It’s the defence. Basketball and lacrosse defence is very similar in terms of positioning and stuff. Playing lacrosse makes playing basketball a lot easier.”
Simcoe beat Churchill 48-44 in the regular season but the Bulldogs eliminated the Redcoats from the Standard and Tribune tournaments.
“We knew it was going to be a hard game,” Churchill head coach Martin Cook said. “They have been playing really well and it didn’t go the way that we wanted and that’s too bad. But I have to give credit to them. They shot the ball well and took advantage of a lot of things on our end that we didn’t do well.”
He described the loss as bittersweet.
“This is my last game coaching and it has been an amazing career. The relationships I have formed with these boys and the coaches have been great. It is unfortunate to lose this way but that’s just how the game goes.”
STATS PACK
Redcoats 47 Bulldogs 44
Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Simcoe’s Noah Budgell with 21 points
For the Governor Simcoe Redcoats: Budgell 21; Anderson Blanchard 13; Ari Steenhuis 9; Lochlan Belliveau 4.
For the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs: Will McAlpine 12; Matteo Scaglione 9; Victor Obanure 8; Jared Cook 7; Danial Nunez Colome 6; Sawyer Neufeld 2.
Up next: Governor Simcoe advances to the SOSSA AA championships next Friday at Governor Simcoe.
