The 2016 Manitoba Summer Games take place in Steinbach this summer from August 7-13. Athletes and teams from across the province have been training extensively in preparation, some have been preparing since last summer, even practicing indoors through the winter. Leading up to the games CKDM will keep you in the know.
Today we look at girl's basketball.
The Parkland Girls basketball team is quickly approaching the roster deadline day. The team has already made a number of cuts according to coach Gary Wowchuk.
"We had about 25 players tryout from across the Parkland. It would've been nice to see a few more from Dauphin," he admitted.
He added that he would have liked to have more players tryout in general, but says it's a tough commitment.
"For players to make a commitment to take half their summer off and play basketball, it's a tough. The girls that are here are ones that really want to play. We started with about 25, we're down to 14 right now."
On June 10th those basketball rosters will be finalized to a total of 12 players. Wowchuck says there's about 7 or 8 players who have definitively made the roster. Wowchuk explains what will get the remaining 4 or 5 players a spot on the roster.
"Commitment. They're all pretty close athletically. I think the big thing will be, do they want to be here? Do they want to work hard and be apart of the Manitoba Games?"
Coach Wowchuck was excited to explain what his offense consists of, and can't wait to unveil it to the rest of the province's teams at the Games.
"Mostly hustle. We don't really run a traditional offense where you have a high post and a couple guards. We have those players but we're more looking at putting our top 5 players on the court as our starting five, if one of them happens to be six foot tall, that's great. But if they're not, that's not bad either. With the offense we're running, it's a motion offense. Basically it's a position-less offense. We're able to adjust quite quickly with that."
Wowchuck also gave an overview of how the Parkland team is expected to compete with other areas, and what he hopes to achieve.
"We've traditionally been fairly week in basketball on the girl's side. I was co-chair of the basketball venue in Swan a few years ago and the girls played quite well, they worked hard but we just don't hold a stick to the bigger regions like when you get into Westman, and Central, and the city, they have a lot to choose from. We're looking at 20 kids for tryouts, they're looking at 50 so there's a big difference. I think one of the main things, that we've talked about is coaches, is we want to improve as a team and we want to give the players a positive experience."
But regardless of how the team performs Wowchuck, a seasoned veteran of the Manitoba Games, is excited to be going again.
"I'm just looking forward to the experience, I've been apart of the Manitoba Games several times both as an athlete when I was younger, and as a coach, and as a player-coach back when they use to have touch-football in the Games (which was quite awhile ago). I'm just looking forward to the experience, it's a tremendous experience that's a lot of fun. It's good to meet a lot of people from across the province and I think that's what sport's about."
