The Blue Bears are fielding a varsity squad made up of junior and senior players and coach Andrew Longley is encouraged by the squad’s effort level and commitment.

“They’re a really good bunch,” Longley said Wednesday following a 46-31 defeat at home to the Centennial Cougars in Niagara Regional High School Athletic Association Zone 3 action. “They listen, they soak in what I’m saying and they genuinely want to get better. So it’s been quite easy because anytime I stop practice or I say we’re going to try this, and even in games when I pull them aside, they’re excellent at picking up on the game. They’re intelligent and they listen.”

The Blue Bears opened the season with a respectable showing in a 44-30 loss to the Stamford Hornets Monday.

“Our two games, we’ve been competitive against bigger schools so we’ll be OK,” Longley said. “It’s a building project. We build this year for next year.”

Longley said the team’s character should prevent discouragement during any rough patches.

“I think it’s all about the girls,” he said. “The girls seem to have a positive attitude. They’re cheering when they’re on the bench. They’re not worried about whether they’re playing or not and I told them they’ll get plenty of time. 

“They’re all going to play. It’d be easy to play Kate (Kolbinson) and a couple of strong girls all the time but we’re not going to get better unless the other girls play. They need the on-court experience because some of these girls have never played basketball other than elementary basketball. I mean, we only have a couple girls that have travel experience.”

Kolbinson, a 16-year-old, Grade 11 student, plays Juel and is more than happy to take on a leadership role.

“It’s nice to help them and kind of see if they have any questions,” the Port Colborne resident said. “I like answering them and I like playing with them and kind of teaching them but it does kind of put a bit of pressure on me too.”

Kolbinson, who paced the Blue Bears with 20 points Wednesday, said the team is well aware they are in a building year.

“I think if we just try our best, we can’t get discouraged from that. We’re playing good, we’re playing as a team,” she said. “If we keep up the positivity and everything, we can’t be mad about it. It’s still a good game.”

The Cougars were making their season debut and coach Craig Maltais said he is curious to see how his charges fare this year.

“Most of our players are Grade 11, but they were pretty competitive at the junior level — they won SOSSA last year which was nice. I’m not really sure how it’s going to be so we’re kind of excited to see. We play in our first tournament this weekend and then we’ve got the BPSN tournament and the Niagara College Hoops Classic coming up. So there’s some good competition out there. 

“We’re kind of excited. We’re hopeful that we can compete with some of the better teams in the region. But at the same time, it is sort of a developmental year because next year, when most of these players are in Grade 12, is the year that we will kind of be all in.”

STATS PACK

Cougars 46 Blue Bears 31

Cat’s Caboose Player of the Game: Centennial’s Lyla Rodrigue with 25 points.

Centennial Cougars: Lyla Rodrigue 25; Ashlyn Armstrong 4; Easton Fournier 4; Sabrina Dusome 4.

Port Colborne Blue Bears: Kate Kolbinson 20; Victoria Dell 8.