Dominant Treherne dynasty headed to Basketball Hall

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This article was published 04/07/2021 (1764 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Courtney Burns made one big mistake but made up for it and then some.

The freshman guard was thrust into action in a 1996 provincial A girls basketball semifinal when the Treherne Tigers’ starting point guard fouled out.

The defending champions were in trouble, down a few possessions late and started fouling. It worked, until they tied the game and Burns (nee DeSpiegelaere) didn’t realize it. She sent one more player to the line with four seconds left, and she hit what proved to be the game-winner.

“I’ll never forget it. I cried and cried because the Grade 12 player, there was only one girl in Grade 12 and they had won the year before,” Burns said. “I just wanted to win it for her and she was so crushed not to be in that final game. It just felt like a lot of pressure for a Grade 9er, but at the time I felt like I let them all down.

“The coaches handled it really well and told me I’m going to laugh at it some day. That’s exactly what I do.”

While it was the end of Treherne’s season, the mid-’90s were just the start of an astonishing run of six provincial titles in nine years.

The Tigers can chuckle about Burns’ moment this fall, when they are inducted into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame in the class of 2021.

Head coach Jim Hoger wouldn’t have believed that day would ever come back in 1994. He and assistant John Tate were entering their 15th season without gold medal. They’d been through too many heartaches and tough breaks. Hoger said they’d go down two starters before provincials and lose nail-biters.

They started to wonder if one would ever go their way, but the one that did was worth the wait. After losing to the Hamiota Huskies every time they met that year, the Tigers saved their best for last and emerged with a 57-53 triumph.

Hoger and Tate’s daughters, Carolyn Hoger and Sara Tate, were both on the team.

“To see my daughter named a provincial all-star for a third year in a row and us to win the provincial championship for the first time was really quite emotional,” Hoger said.

The second championship was unexpected for a different reason. Treherne star Tammy Mahon, who was named the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association female athlete of the half-century in 2012, got sick and missed a significant chunk of the season. Burns stepped up and led the Tigers to gold, earning tournament MVP honours.

Mahon won the award the following season before graduating to the University of Manitoba women’s volleyball team, which she helped win two national titles and claimed MVP nods with.

Burns closed her career with one last title, the third of Treherne’s famous four-peat in 1999.

She went on to play a season at Brandon University and her teaching career ultimately brought her back to the Wheat City. She can’t overstate how much her Tigers teammates and coaches helped make the pathway possible.

“It instilled work ethic, dedication, how to be part of a team and a sense of belonging and pride. We talk about being from Treherne and it’s ‘Oh, that’s where that basketball team’s from that dominates across the province.’ We were winning against triple A teams, winning quite handily sometimes. It really impacted you as a person, just your confidence,” Burns said.

“They got nice jerseys, they’d get the warmup clothes and make sure there were pep rallies. I think they created that feeling of ‘I’m something because I’m on this team.’ It helped to keep that program going and helped people be dedicated and try to make that team.

“I think that was part of their plan but we didn’t know it as kids. They always pushed us to be better every practice and actually suited up … their thought process was if you’re just playing each other … you’re not going to get better.”

Hoger and Tate did a lot more than that to build the program. Hoger admits his knowledge of basketball was limited when he took the job but made sure to attend clinics in Winnipeg and soak in everything he could. Lessons from former Winnipeg Wesmen coaches Bill Wedlake and Vic Pruden, Manitoba women’s coach Coleen Dufresne and others provided valuable knowledge, drills and ways to approach practices and games.

Hoger felt it was simply necessary to keep up with the competition.

“One of the things that’s really understated or not realized is how good basketball is in rural Manitoba,” Hoger said. “There’s so many excellent coaches … People such as Lorna Robertson in Hamiota, Keith Forsyth in Boissevain, Sharon Prost in Glenboro, all of those. If we wanted to win we had to be competitive. We had to up our game.”

One key they developed was the transition game. The team’s mantra, “run, baby, run,” guided them whenever they took the court. The coaches pushed the team as hard as they could for full two-hour practices and it apparently didn’t take much to motivate them by way of punishments for losing in a drill or scrimmage.

“It was amazing what kids would try to do to win so they didn’t have to do six jumping jacks,” Hoger said with a laugh. “They’re highly trained athletes and they’re killing it just for that.”

Hoger and Tate also made sure the team played enough competitive tournaments, whether they be around Westman or against AAA schools in Winnipeg. Before teams riding school buses became the norm, they logged thousands of kilometres in Hoger’s red Chevrolet van, listening to “whatever the girls were into” and staying over at schools on Friday nights if they were far enough away.

While it made for plenty of extra hours away from home — you can bet Hoger’s first thank you at the Hall of Fame induction will be to his wife for putting up with it — he says the way the Treherne staff shared responsibilities outside the classroom made it possible to last 29 years on the bench.

“Everybody believed in a variety of co-curricular actitivies,” Hoger said. “In some schools a Phys. Ed. guy might be coaching five sports and I don’t think that’s conducive. All that does is lead to burnout. I can’t tell you how proud I was to be part of the staff at Treherne Collegiate for all those years.”

Of all the titles, Hoger says the 2000 one might be the most impressive. The key pieces of the 1990s moved on and they were left with just three returning players. Their best finish all year against Hamiota was a 30-point loss.

Seniors Amber Jeffrey and Corinna Purkess led the group to their fourth straight title, placing them among incredibly rare company to win the big one each of their high school seasons.

“At the provincial championship game, I don’t know what got us into it, what happened but we won that game 43-37 and truly there wasn’t two people in the province that would have bet a nickel we would have won it,” Hoger chuckled. “The girls were just so ecstatic.

“I’ve said for numerous years, as the number one team I really don’t want to play the number two team because every time I play them they’ll try something different and if it works they might beat us. Whereas if you’re the number two team you want to play the number one team because you got to see what you have to do differently.”

The Tigers came up shy the next two years but made one final run in 2003. All in all, Hoger and Tate took home 16 medals in 29 years. They define success by more than the colour around their necks.

“I still took great pride in taking a team that was not championship calibre and getting them to provincials and finishing second or third,” Hoger said. “I was fortunate enough to be named coach of the year six times and three of the six were not when we won the championship … The fact that we were able to win coach of the year three times in years we didn’t win provincials is probably what I’m most proud of.”

The Tigers dynasty led to lifelong friendships. Hoger said about 32 players from the championship seasons are planning to attend the induction ceremony on Sept. 25 in Winnipeg. For Burns, that speaks to the character of her coaches and the lasting impact they made on their athletes.

“Those guys, they really cared about you and followed you through your life after you graduated, made sure you were taking the right courses to be successful after you graduated,” Burns said.

“They didn’t just coach you. They cared.”

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