One established contender and two ambitious start-up teams will head on the road to carry the Lethbridge College Kodiaks colours into action during ACAC championship tournaments this week.
The Kodiaks men’s basketball team will be looking for its second ACAC championship in three years in Medicine Hat, while the men’s and women’s futsal teams will make their ACAC debuts at the championship tournament in Calgary.
These championships are in addition to the women’s basketball and indoor track tournaments that are both being held in Lethbridge this week.
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The Kodiaks men’s basketball team (15-6) finished third in the ACAC south division and will face the NAIT Ooks in a quarterfinal on Thursday night.
Lethbridge was led by forward Chris Maughan (third year, Business Administration – Management), who returned to the Kodiaks after a year at the University of Lethbridge and led the team in both points (15.4 PPG) and rebounds (7.9 PPG). The Kodiaks also received strong offensive seasons from Australian-import Cory Richardson (first year, Business Administration - Management) who averaged 15.2 points per game and Grady Taylor (third year, Criminal Justice - Policing) who contributed 14.7 points per game.
“The ACAC has two bids for nationals and our goal is grab one of them,” says Kodiaks head coach Ryan Heggie. “To do that, we must continue our strong team defense, as well as trust each other and play with confidence and composure on offence. That will give us our best chance to win.”
The Ooks finished second in the ACAC north division with a 17-7 record. The two teams met in an exhibition game on Jan. 6 where the Kodiaks took a 78-61 win, led by Taylor’s 25 points.
Tip off between the Kodiaks and Ooks is at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Medicine Hat College. The game can be viewed on ACAC TV. The full schedule and more information is on the ACAC website.
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The Kodiaks will enter the ACAC futsal championships for the first time, as part of an ACAC trial to get more teams invested in the start-up sport. The championship runs from Thursday to Sunday in Calgary and is hosted by Ambrose College.
Both Kodiaks teams will rely heavily on players from the Kodiaks soccer programs and will be led by new head coach Sean Carey.
The men’s team will open round-robin action at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday against Medicine Hat College, before facing Ambrose College on Friday and Olds College on Saturday. The top two teams in each four-team division will head to Sunday’s playoffs.
“We’re looking forward to finally getting these guys on the court, and seeing how we match up in futsal,” says Carey. “It will be the final games for leaving veterans Logan Tataryn and Andrew Southern, so hopefully we can send these guys away on a high and bring home the title.”
The format of the women’s tournament is the same as the men’s event. The Kodiaks women open action at 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, followed by games against Ambrose College on Friday and Olds College on Saturday. Semifinals and the bronze and gold medal games are on Sunday.
“The women's team is excited to take the court and push to bring home the championship this weekend,” says Carey. “We are unfortunately without starting goaltender Brittany Klein who received a concussion playing futsal a couple of weeks ago, but we are up to the challenge to respond to that adversity.”
Full schedules, results and information on the ACAC men’s and women’s futsal championships is available online.