| gucmnenemmmenmmmncence ren AD OLLS

 

| ie

 
 

Jordan Cripps
Sports Editor

The Royals Men's basketball team is hoping to put together a strong full season after
one which saw them get off to a great start but tail off as injuries and academic prob-
lems plagued the team for much of the season. After the first two weeks last season, the
Royals were sitting atop the BCCAA standings with a perfect 4—0 record. From there,
though, the tide quickly turned as the Royals lost six of their next seven games to fall
to 6th plage. From there, it was just way too much ground for the Royals to make up
and they wound up the season with a 6-12 record, good enough for 8th place in the
BCCAA standings but no berth in the BCCAA provincial championships.

Even though the season didn't end the way that the Royals wanted, Coach Munro felt
that there were some positive signs that emerged from the adversity as the team “fought
hard after Christmas and saw some great improvement... that we hope to carry forward
to this year.”

Many of the players that went through the challenges of last season are still with the
team, namely lan Hogan, Dan Jakovljevich, Cole Birnie, and Jim Martin. Munro hopes
that the experience these players gained last season will be an influence on the players
putting on the Royals uniform for the first time. These new players include guards
Taylor Cherris- Wilding and Bryce MacDonald who join the Royals after spending last
season with the rival Langara Falcons. Another transfer player is John Orimaco, who
comes to Douglas from Kwantlen. Guard Greg Jackson, a former football player at
SFU, and Bijan Jiany round out the transfer players on this year’s edition of the Royals.
The Royals are also trying to work a number of rookies into their lineup. Brothers Ryan
and Tyler Boyce join the Royals from Brookswood High School. The Royals have also
added size to their front-court with the additions of Jon Thomson and Kelly Truman.
Thomson, a 6’5” forward comes to the Royals from Burnaby South high school, while
Truman, who stands 6’9” leaves Fleetwood Park High School to join the Royals. Other
additions to the Royals lineup are James Anderson and Peter Essoka. Anderson is a 6’4”

Section Editor: Jordan Cripps
_ desportseditor@yahoo.ca

 

the other press

oyals Prepare for Upcoming Season

forward from North Delta, while Essoka is a 6’0” guard from Chicago.

For the Royals to be successful this season, they need Ian Hogan, a BCCAA all star
last year, to repeat his 15.5 points per game, 8.8 rebounds per game and 1.85 blocks
per game performance. They also will also look for Cherris-Wilding, who has been
dominant offensively throughout the exhibition schedule, to continue his strong play.
The supporting cast will also be relied upon to provide solid defense and chip in offen-
sively.

With two players standing 6’9”, and two or three others that aren’t much smaller, the
Royals should be able to use their size to their advantage. What makes this team inter-
esting, though, is that there is also a surplus of quickness in players such as Jackson and
Cherris-Wilding, which will allow the Royals to utilize the fast break. For Coach
Munro and Assistant Coach Shawn Corness, this is the Royal’s biggest strength.
Because they can “shoot or go inside” to Hogan and the other big men, the opposition
defence is left to decide whether the biggest threat is the inside presence or the outside
game. At the same time, the area Munro feels will require the biggest amount of work
during the season is the team’s defensive play.

With all these new faces for the Royals there will probably be a learning curve as the
coaches figure out how each player can best be utilized. If the pre-season is any indica-
tion, though, with the Royals strong showings in all of their exhibition games, this has
already been dealt with, and the Royals will just continue to focus on playing winning
basketball. Munro sees this as a mixed blessing: “there’s good and bad about it really, it
injects a lot of new blood into our lineup but in the pre-season we've been a little rough
around the edges.”

There is an added incentive for the Royals to perform well during the upcoming sea-
son, as this year’s provincial championships will be held on their home court at the New

Westminster gym on March 6th through 8th.

 

Photo by Jordan Cripps

 

© page 20