Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Preface this comment by throwing the salt, knocking on wood and wearing the same socks for five days: the Griffins should have more than eight healthy players when they visit the Calgary Dinos this weekend.
That's the situation they found themselves in for two games at Mount Royal University last weekend as illness took down more than a quarter of the roster.
Things are looking up on that front ahead of a weekend series at the Calgary Dinos (Friday, 6 p.m. and Saturday, 4 p.m., both Canada West TV).
"Touch wood," said Griffins head coach Katherine Adams. "We've been able to have five on five in practice this week, which helps."
A positive by-product of having just eight players in last weekend's split at MRU, though, is that there was opportunities for more minutes for some of the Griffins' younger players, which can only serve to speed up their development.
"We had a lot of players step into some roles that they hadn't played before or weren't used to playing," said Adams. "They got that experience of needing to do what's needed.
"They did a tremendous job of adapting and saying 'hey, what does the team need from me right now? Let me help serve our team in the best way possible.' I think that's huge – just that adaptability and flexibility piece to hopefully help serve us well in the future.
"There's no better experience than experience itself," she continued. "So, to actually have first year athletes playing 20 minutes a game was really valuable for them. The growth they showed from Friday to Saturday was tremendous. Hopefully that will serve us well down the road."
Of course, some of their regular top players still led the way as the Griffins' netted their first win of the season last Saturday with a 71-64 triumph. Mackenzie Farmer had 20 points, Noelle Kilbreath 19, Hayley Lalor 13 and Mikah Reed 11.
They'll be key again, but the Griffins will have more depth when they go against a Calgary team with some interesting new pieces. The Dinos are currently led in scoring by first-year Louise Rouse and have fifth-year guard Madison Landry, who was formerly a top player with UNBC and played pro in Luxembourg.
"They have a pretty new roster this year – some familiar faces playing some big roles, but also some pretty big pieces for them in their first year with the program, some veteran transfers who make them pretty dangerous and give a pretty different look from what we've seen in previous years," said Adams, who was previously a player and assistant coach with the Dinos before coming to MacEwan.
It's certainly a place that's well known to her and the Griffins, who played there in the conference playoff tournament last season.
"There is a certain comfort level going to Calgary and not just from playing them," said Adams. "We've played there in exhibition and last year in playoffs. The facility is unique, and we have a certain comfort level with that.
"With any opponent, we're going in with the focus on us and playing our game, and looking at the ways they're going to have to adapt to us and maybe some of the mismatches and things we do that might be difficult for them to guard," she added. "We'll see what happens."