Glenboro dynasty heads to hoops Hall of Fame

The Glenboro Panthers girls’ basketball dynasty started long before their first provincial championship in 2004.

The foundation for a remarkable run of five single-A titles in six years was laid when those particular Panthers were still in elementary school. Head coach Sharon Prost’s husband, Dave, started a Grade 4-6 team and had them practise and play one night a week.

“They got excited about the game and when they got into high school, I didn’t have to start from scratch,” Sharon Prost said. “If he hadn’t done that, maybe we wouldn’t have had that run.”

The Panthers came together and built a powerhouse in the 2000s, and a few decades later, are coming together again on Saturday to be enshrined in the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame.

“I was shocked. It’s something I never expected and the girls didn’t expect either, but we’re so honoured, and I know the girls are so excited for Saturday,” Prost said.

“They were an awesome group of girls. They practised hard … they were great, and the parents were great too.”

Prost said she had coached the team for 18 years before the first championship. As Glenboro’s Grade 1-2 teacher, she loved the opportunity to reconnect with her students and see how they’d grown while trying to develop their passion for basketball.

The championship-winning group included her daughter, Dayna, for the first four years. She was in Grade 4 when Dave started the young team, and quickly fell in love with the game. She said by the time she was in high school, she felt like the Panthers were expected to win.

If it weren’t for her heroics, they might not have won in her freshman year.

Glenboro faced its rival Treherne, whom it hadn’t beaten all year, in the zone final. Tied in the dying seconds, she caught a pass just inside the three-point line, turned and fired a buzzer-beater to earn a trip to provincials.

Coincidentally, that trip was a quick 45-kilometre drive to Treherne to play in an environment the Panthers will never forget.

After winning the semifinal and final on the same day, with a banquet and skills competition in between, Glenboro met Treherne one more time.

“It was awesome. The stands were packed; it was standing-room only,” said Michelle Bradley (nee Huber), an all-star that year.

Bradley had transferred from Wawanesa for her sophomore year and said the transition felt seamless as she found her place alongside seniors Ferran Cardinal and Chrissy VanDamme.

“It was super awesome. I got into a class of a lot of like-minded individuals, and it seemed like we had a really good number of years there. Everybody was these farm or small-town kids who worked really hard and never gave up. That echoed into sports.”

The Panthers were confident after beating the Tigers in the zone final, and capped the season with their best game, winning 77-63. Cardinal was named MVP.

Moving forward, it was up to Bradley, Craig and Prost to lead the way.

They were even more motivated after the first title, and added club basketball to their slate. The trio travelled to Winnipeg every week, with their parents taking turns driving, and would get home around midnight to head back to school the next day.

Bradley said that, along with camps like the one Don Thomson held at Neelin, were big for their development.

It paid off, as they rumbled through two more championship runs. They beat the Strathclair Skyhawks 61-43 in 2005 and 54-41 in 2006.

Bradley earned back-to-back tournament MVPs and Basketball Manitoba’s single-A player of the year award in 2006.

She then headed to Lakeland College in Lloydminster, Alta., before capping her Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference career at The King’s University in Edmonton. Bradley felt completely prepared after playing for Sharon Prost.

“I’ve always been competitive and ambitious. Playing with Mrs. Prost, she helped develop that. I was competitive, but I wasn’t aggressive,” said Bradley, who’s now a senior manager at BDO in Brandon.

“She helped build me into the strong and confident individual I am today. That’s what sports does. It creates confidence and perseverance.”

The following year, Dayna Prost knew she needed to take another step.

“There was a lot of pressure at the time to win, because we had always won,” she said.

The Panthers met the Skyhawks in yet another final, and this one didn’t come nearly as easily. They trailed by seven points in the last minute, and a few key players had fouled out.

Coach Prost had the offence run through Dayna, and she delivered.

“For some reason, Dayna would get the ball and they would foul her. She would go to the line and make her free throws,” Sharon said.

“The other girls, they all played great defence that last minute. They didn’t let Strathclair score, so that was a big part of it.”

Glenboro capped the four-peat with a 48-47 win. Prost was named MVP, with Craig receiving the all-star nod.

Prost played for the Brandon University Bobcats the following year, and is now working as a nurse.

“Those years, that team and being part of sports in general teach you discipline, being part of a team, commitment,” she said. “Those are lessons I’ve taken since then through my career and life right now.”

For the Panthers, that was the end of the title runs, but not their last time on the podium.

Treherne defeated a younger Glenboro team 44-40 in the 2008 semifinals, before falling to Grandview in the title game. The Panthers earned a bronze medal, then made an improbable run in 2009.

They lost their zone final and needed to win a wild-card game to get back to provincials. They did, then rolled through the first two rounds before junior Paige Murray led the Panthers past the Tigers, 42-40.

“She played really well. She came in extra time to work on her shooting and she shot really well,” said Sharon Prost, who guided Glenboro to one more bronze medal in 2010 before retiring.

Since then, a few teams have taken their turn dominating the single-A scene, as Hamiota won three straight from 2012 to 2014, and Sprague’s Ross L. Gray completed a three-peat in 2017.

The Panthers reclaimed the throne for three years from 2022 to 2024, but no program has been quite as dominant as this one.

Bradley made sure to acknowledge what it took behind the scenes to make them successful.

“We had so many tournaments everywhere because Mrs. Prost had so many connections. All of our parents took turns driving; that was a lot,” Bradley said

“There were so many coaches, people who came in and hosted camps, so many individuals in the basketball community got us here and I can’t list everybody, but it’s a thank you to every one of them.”

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The induction ceremony is on Saturday at Winnipeg’s Victoria Inn. The Brandon University men’s team from 1979 to 1984 is being enshrined as well. A feature on their run, including four national medals, will run in Saturday’s Sun.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com