Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – After seven-and-a-half weeks of in-house training, the MacEwan women's basketball team is champing at the bit to see some action against other teams.
They'll get that this weekend during a non-conference tournament in Kamloops, B.C., facing Thompson Rivers on Thursday (6 p.m. MT), UNBC on Friday (5 p.m. MT) and Manitoba on Saturday (2 p.m. MT).
"I think we're more than ready to play our first games," said head coach Katherine Adams. "It's been a long month and a half since we started up, but a necessary month and a half since we started training. We have a pretty new team and a lot of big changes coming into the season with personnel. We've needed that time just to figure each other out. But we're certainly ready for a test to see where we're at where we go from here."
Although the Griffins have nine returning players, they've worked six newcomers into the mix over the past few weeks and implemented new formations and lineups. This weekend, Adams will get to see how that all shakes out.
"When you look at our roster, we're still quite young, which comes with a lot of learning and a lot of growth," said Adams. "But it's been really great and quite rewarding just to see the growth that's happened – people trying to find their place and figure out their role and how they fit into the mix.
"You think you have a sense during training, but competition presents a different picture. We're excited about the opportunity to take the next step forward."
The Griffins have one more non-conference game on their preseason schedule after this weekend as they're set to play Regina at the University of Alberta's Saville Centre on Oct. 27.
"There's still a lot to learn and go through over this weekend, but hopefully we come out the other end being able to say this is who we are, and this is what we do well, and these are the areas we need to improve to keep building on that," said Adams.
MacEwan kicks off the Canada West regular season on Nov. 3-4 vs. Mount Royal University (6 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, both David Atkinson Gym, Canada West TV).
