Lancers lead the way

St. Vital

It may be early in the high school basketball season, but Dakota Collegiate is looking like the school to beat.

At press time, Dakota’s boys and girls varsity teams were both ranked No. 1 in the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association’s AAAA Top 10s.

The Lancers girls team was undefeated in league play at press time and has already won two tournaments — taking the Pembina Trails Bison Classic tourney in December by beating the defending provincial champion Vincent Massey Trojans 63-60 in the final, then doing it again at the St. Vital Invitational on Jan. 17, defeating Massey 60-51 in the final.

“I’ve been so fortunate to have a bunch of athletes come through this building who want to be next-level athletes after high school,” said varsity girls coach Eric Sung.

“We goal-set as individuals and as a team, and hope those individual goals help lift the team up as well.”

While Grade 12 captain Emilie McLean, a 6-foot-1 forward committed to play at the University of Manitoba next year, is a natural leader on and off the court, Sung said the team enjoys contributions from the entire roster, which features a mix of Grade 11 and 12 players, as well as a pair of Grade 10s.

“Our roster is made up of a lot of multi-sport athletes,” he said. “We do have a handful of them who are basketball-first, but we have a volleyball player, a tennis player, a softball player. So trying to use all their athletic abilities and highlight them is always a challenge. Our young players are also rising to the occasion, trying to get used to the pace and physicality of the varsity game.”

Sung, who has been coaching at Dakota for 12 years, said that while this year’s team may not be the biggest, it is playing to its strengths.

“We’re playing as hard as we can, maximizing our speed and effort,” Sung said.

“We try to play an uptempo game as much as we can. We are a defensive-minded team. A lot of our focus is that. If you come to a game you’ll hear a lot of feedback is around defence and how we want to approach it, and hopefully that kickstarts our transition and the pace we want to play at.”

Still, with nearly two months to go until the provincial tournament, Sung said the team is taking nothing for granted.

“There’s so much parity in the league this year,” Sung said. “Everyone is fighting for the same thing with so many great coaches putting in time with so many great athletes, it’s going to make an exciting end to the season.”

At press time, Dakota’s junior varsity girls were ranked second in the province behind Vincent Massey, evidence that there’s a strong pipeline of talent at the St. Vital school that should keep it competing for banners for years to come.

The Lancers varsity boys were also undefeated in league play at press time. The boys won the season-opening Brandon Sun Spartan Invitational tournament in December, beating Oak Park 73-50 in the final, as well as the Trojan Classic on Jan. 17, defeating Garden City Collegiate 82-69.

“There’s a sense of unselfishness (to their game), and a sense of playing for each other,” said longtime varsity boys coach Dean Favoni.

“We talk, at the beginning of season, about celebrating the individual successes of each other as we accomplish team success.”

This year’s squad features an even mix of Grade 11 and 12 players, many of them multi-sport athletes, but all with a focus on basketball. After coming up short in last season’s provincial final, and making it as far as the final four in 2024, Favoni said the team intends to make a run at the championship banner this year.

“We kind of layer our goals,” said Favoni, who has been a teacher and basketball coach at Dakota for 35 years.

“We have individual game goals and league goals. One would be to win our zone, advance to provincials. Next goal would be to make final four and ultimately win.”

Despite early success, Favoni noted that the team will be making adjustments every game, looking to maintain its advantage over a highly competitive AAAA field.

“I’d like to think we focus more on defensive end,” he said. “We try to play tough man-to-man defence and try to play fairly fast, hopefully at a pace that creates discomfort for the other team, and turnovers. We’re still fairly early, mid-January here, but there are always things we’ll adjust based on how teams choose to play against us. We’ll be aware of how they try to play against us.”

While Favoni eschews bestowing titles like “captain” on individual players, he noted that Grade 12 forward Brady Penner is among those taking an active leadership role.

“He is a vocal leader in practice and before games, but he really leads by example,” Favoni said. “He is one of the hardest-working, most determined kids we have right now. He is very competitive. His work ethic and drive rubs off on other people.”

With plenty of basketball left to play, Favoni added that “nothing is taken for granted.”

“I’m a very cautious coach,” he said. “I have a healthy amount of respect for any team we play. In the Top 10 there are a lot of teams who are working and trying to move up that list as well. We’re making no assumptions.”