The Bradford Bucs are hoping to dunk on the competition at a provincial championship next week.
The Bradford District High School (BDHS) senior boys AAA basketball team are headed to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships in Stoney Creek, where they’ll join 18 teams from across the province and hope to take on last year’s champs, Oakwood Collegiate from Toronto.
When it comes to their strategy, prominent Bucs player Ian McBride kept it simple.
“Get them into foul trouble and don’t let their shooter shoot. That’s pretty much it,” he said.
In Grade 11, McBride said he has been playing basketball for about five years, with this being the second season he’s spent with the Bucs senior boys, and the second in a row he’s been able to go to OFSAA with them.
“It feels really good. Second time in two years, so back to back. It’s pretty nice,” he said, calling the opportunity “pretty special.”
McBride said the team had no particular concerns and “just hope to play good basketball.”
The Bucs secured their spot after defeating Barrie’s St. Peter's Catholic Secondary School Panthers in the Georgian Bay Secondary School Association (GBSSA) championship at St. Peter’s on Friday, Feb. 23.
“It was really fun. It wasn’t a very close game, so it was comfortable,” McBride said of the Bucs’ 87-29 victory.
Going into the game, he explained the Bucs wanted to focus on isolating the Panthers’ best player to make him ineffective.
“They only had one really prominent player that was able to create space and get his shot, so we just tried to take that away from him and it worked,” McBride said.
Despite leading by about 28 points at the half, Coach Kate Walker didn’t want to lose momentum and give the Panthers a chance to make a comeback in the third or fourth quarter, so she encouraged the Bucs to keep up the pace and increase the point spread even further.
Even though the team didn’t have any particular points objective, the Bucs’ offensive and defensive capabilities combined with a strategy of maintaining possession, which paid off.
“We really brought the intensity,” Walker said. “There were at least five dunks. Ian was tossed an alley-oop and he had a huge alley-oop dunk.”
She praised the team for their cohesion in a game where each one of the 13 players hit the court.
“Everyone was a contributing factor,” Walker said. “As a coach, I had an opportunity to witness all the things we’ve developed and talked about get put into play.”
The coach wasn’t the only one who was watching though, and while the team’s fan base regularly “pack the gym” at home, Walker recalled a dedicated contingent also turned up for the GBSSA final in Barrie to fill the Bucs’ section of the bleachers.
Walker has been coaching the senior boys basketball team on and off since 2008 and while last year was her first time going to OFSAA as coach, she’s looking forward to going back this year with a team that includes five returning players, giving them a “very strong base.”
“We’re a very well-rounded team and very deep and that’s kind of what makes us special,” Walker said.
While getting to OFSAA is an accomplishment in itself, if the Bucs can win the tournament, Walker thinks it will “put us on the map” as both a team and an area to watch.
“In terms of that success, it would be huge,” she said.
Anyone hoping to see the Bucs in action can find out more about OFSAA’s plans to live stream the games March 4 to 6 at live.ofsaa.on.ca/en.
