Giilck leading Neelin into BSSI

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This article was published 15/12/2016 (3606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Neelin’s varsity boys’ basketball team will have a very different look when it takes the court for the 13th annual Brandon Sun Spartan Invitational tournament this afternoon.

The familiar green, white and black colour scheme is gone and so is most of last year’s squad. Kellen Giilck is the lone player returning for his senior season with Grade 11s making up the rest of the roster. That’s not to say it isn’t a talented group of young players moving into the varsity ranks as 11 of the 12 newcomers were on Neelin’s team which won the junior varsity AAA provincial title last season.

Giilck has some experience with his new teammates, earning a provincial JV silver medal with half a dozen of them two years ago.

That has him feeling comfortable with the group of which he will try to be a leader.

“Definitely getting used to (being in the minority),” said Giilck, who was one of two Grade 11 players on the varsity team last season. “It was strange last year. Now I’m just expecting it. I played with them in my Grade 10 year, so it’s just going back to that.”

“I see myself as one of the leaders, maybe not the lead one as they all kind of grew up together, but definitely somewhere in there,” the five-foot-nine guard continued. “Just pointing out and helping out with what they don’t know yet as they’re a year younger and they haven’t had that experience.”

Making the jump from JV to varsity is always big, and the timetable of the tournament hasn’t allowed the Spartans, who will face the Killarney Raiders in their opener at 12:30 p.m., to prepare much for the event.

The team only has three practices under its belt as head coach Don Thomson and eight of the basketball players won the provincial AAA varsity boys’ volleyball championship on Dec. 3. For Thomson though, it doesn’t matter how many times a team has practised. He said squads are never prepared for the first game of the season.

“You’re never ready, but at the end of the day December 15 rolls around and we play,” he said. “That’s kind of the excitement of it. I’m a person where we’ve had a season where you’ve had 35 practices before you play a game and this year we’ll have three. That’s the nature of the game. We’ve been fortunate that our kids over the last year have played in the summer and gone to camp.

“BSSI is an opportunity for kids to play and just enjoy what the tournament is all about.”

Giilck said the volleyball players have switched into a basketball frame of mind pretty quickly.

Without a lot of time together so far this season, Giilck hopes the BSSI helps bring the Spartans closer together.

“Probably hope to win quite a few games, grow as a team and get our plays going for the end of the year. That’s probably the most important,” he said of what he’d like to see happen this weekend. “It’s a bonding experience and it sets everyone’s role, it gets them in that role where they fit in on the team early instead of everyone trying to figure it out at practices.”

One thing the team is united on is leaving the green colour scheme behind for a blue, grey, yellow and black one this tournament This year’s BSSI has adopted the theme of “Fight for the Cure” and will raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society.

Neelin changed its colours to reflect those that represent the charity.

There are four current staff member families who have been directly affected by various types of cancers as well as former staff, and the team wanted to do something special.

“We’re very fortunate to be in a basketball tournament this weekend when you think of all the families out there in our community and around the area and every time they go home and they’re fighting this disease,” Thomson said. “It’s an opportunity for us to reflect and make sure they know that we’re supporting the fight that they have. Hopefully things are going to work out for them.”

The 32-team tournament also features the Vincent Massey Vikings and Crocus Plainsmen in the Tri-Star Screen Printing (Tier 2) Division. Massey hosts the Lord Selkirk Royals at Massey today at 2:15 p.m., while Crocus plays in its home gym against the Steinbach Sabres at 2:15 p.m. A new champion will be crowned in that division with Lloydminster not returning to the event.

Meanwhile, the Oak Park Raiders are back to try to win their second-stright and seventh overall Victoria Inn (Tier 1) Division championship.

The Tier 2 final is slated for Saturday at 5:10 p.m., followed by the Tier 1 final at 7 o’clock. Both games will be played at Neelin.

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