With Rocky View basketball on break for Christmas, Bow Valley Bobcats JV girls coach Kris Nielsen took some time to reflect on the season so far.

Overall, Nielsen is impressed with the progress his squad has made.

"We started off really learning the game, learning the rules, learning where to go, where to be, how to pass, how to shoot. Really fundamental stuff and now their starting to progress and picking up some of the systems."

Nielsen says where his team lacks experience, they have raw talent that they need to use to their advantage.

"We have some good size, some good height, and in that height we have some exceptional athletes. I think we can get up and down the court much better than what we've shown so far and I think that's going to be a real focus for us in the new year, how we can push the ball. We also have some talented kids, we have some shooters which I think is probably a fairly unique thing with JV girls. So we're really looking forward to kind of exploiting that part of our game and seeing if that can lead us to more wins."

The JV girls Bobcat's finished 2016 with their first Rocky View league win against the Springbank Phoenix. Including tournament games, the girls sit at a 4-4 record. Nielsen says that win is emblematic of the progress they are making, both in experience and in attitude.

"I think that they're starting to realize that they can win, and now they're starting to expect it from themselves, and I think that's a big step forward. Instead of going into games thinking, hopefully we can do ok, they're saying, we can go and we can win this game."

The JV Bobcats will next hit the courts on January 11 against the Beiseker Bandits.

 

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