The St. Mary Marauders are ready to hit the court for the 2022-2023 basketball season. Both teams are hopeful to punch their ticket to the provincial basketball tournament, Hoopla, which is being hosted in Prince Albert in March.
BOYS
For the St. Mary Sr. Boys, the name of the game is to put as much pressure on opponents as possible. Head coach David Seto says the Marauders are going to utilize every one of the 14 players on their roster throughout the season.
“We’re pretty deep. We have a roster of 14 guys. But, if you look at our roster one strength is our depth. We can play multiple guys at multiple positions and the style that we play which is a lot of running, transitions with full court man and pressing. It’s a good thing to have that depth because playing that style requires a lot of energy and conditioning.”
The provincial basketball championship, Hoopla will be hosted in Prince Albert in March, but there is no guaranteed host spots for either St. Mary or Carlton as both schools will have to qualify.
Seto says the experience of playing Hoopla in Prince Albert would be a special experience for the Marauders should they qualify.
“It’s going to be special if we make it. We try not to talk about it because I feel like there will be pressure to do that. To have the opportunity to possibly play in our home gym and home city, it would be special and something the guys would remember the rest of their lives. You don’t get this opportunity a lot, just want to try to make the most of it and work hard during the season and things work out at the end.”
The Marauders qualified for Hoopla a year ago and are hoping to build off of that success going into this season.
“We’re trying to build off last year’s Hoopla appearance and trying to go from there. To be one of the top schools in the province was special last year, if we build off that and be better, I think it’s great for our program.”
GIRLS
The St. Mary Sr. Girls basketball are also going to rely on their depth this season
Head coach Dwayne Gareau says the Marauders feature a little bit of everything on their roster this season.
“I think one of the things that’s going to make us unique is we have a bit of everything from size to speed and good shooting. We do have depth. Sometimes we wait for those cycles to come through where one year you have the shooting, but not the size or you have the size but not the shooting. We actually have a year where we have a good combination of all those pieces so it should be interesting.”
From the early contests at this point in the season, Gareau says he expects a lot from guard/forward Sydney Batiuk this season but expects others on the roster to play a crucial role
“Early in the season, based on last year and what I’m seeing this year, Sydney Batiuk is going to do a lot for us. She’s a very important piece to scoring, good defense, she can rebound and shoot. She is universal in that sense, but that only matters if you got pieces around that girls can play defense together. If she’s the defensive gameplan for the opponent, we need other girls to step up.”
With Hoopla being hosted in Prince Albert this season, Gareau says he hopes there are as many teams from the PA area qualify as possible, including St. Mary
“The first and most important thing is we can find a way to qualify. The more PA and area teams we have representing this area for Hoopla helps grow the game and grow the atmosphere. We are hoping we have a good season, and everything leads to qualifying for Hoopla so that will be the goal as a group.”
Gareau adds the Marauders aren’t feeling any additional pressure for Hoopla qualification despite the event being hosted in Prince Albert.
“I don’t know if I’d necessarily categorize it as added pressure. Whenever you get into a playoff do-or-die situation, the pressure is at an all time high. But I don’t think there’s any added pressure in any year whether it’s in PA, Saskatoon or Moose Jaw.”
sports@paherald.sk.ca
