Forettes building around young core this season

By Justin Seward
Commentator/Courier

The Foremost School Forettes senior girls basketball team is aiming for another provincials berth this season.
However, the girls only have three Grade 12s from last year’s squad and will be embracing a more youthful look this year to try and achieve that goal.
“We’ve lost four graduating players so that’s a lot to overcome sometimes when you’re a 1A school and have 35 kids in our whole high school,” said Laura Rumpel, head coach.
“The team I have is very dedicated and they all love basketball and very excited to be there. (In) the first tournament, they showed a lot of confidence.”
Five Grade 10s and one Grade 9 fills out the rest of the roster.
Rumpel will be relying on the three Grade 12s Kamryn Yancie, Morgan Brower and Jessica Butterwick to shoulder the load this season.
“I’m going to lean on them tremendously, but they are ready to carry the load and they are really good leaders,” said Rumpel.
“All three of them are so encouraging and help the younger players develop. The whole team is going to lean on them and I think that happens all the time with your older players.”
Rumpel says with a young roster that the coaching does change and she will have to rely on other coaching help.
“My two daughters always help me every year and I’ve got a couple other people to help. You’ve just got make sure the young ones get what they need and the older ones keep improving,” she said.
“I just have to have a lot more divided practices and I am lucky to have other people in the community to come and help me.”
The goal is to get back provincials which are being hosted up the road this year at Senator Gershaw in Bow Island.
What may help the Forettes’ push to the provincial tournament is having Yancie and Brower coming off the volleyball provincial fourth place finish which was also at Gershaw.
“I think it’s really good for them,” she said.
“Especially since our volleyball success hasn’t been like it is in basketball. I think that played a big part in helping them to boost their confidence and understand they can do it in both sports.”
The girls have played two league games and recently won a bronze medal at the SAIT tournament in Calgary, an event the team has been attending since 1991.