During practice the night before the CKSS senior boys basketball team opens their season, coach Bob Barwick tells his players "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon."
For a team that has lost its top five scorers from graduation, every day will be about getting a little bit better. Barwick chuckles at the thought that his team has had such a high turnover, after winning the AAA LKSSAA Championship a year ago. But he says they do have some leaders.
"We're relatively young, but led by Miles Dudley, he's in grade 12, and we have Jake Anderson, a transfer from McGregor."
They face the Northern Sarnia Vikings to start the season, who Barwick says will be one of the teams to beat this year. Last season they had mostly grade 10 and 11 players, but held in close with every contest. At this early stage of the season, Barwick says a big factor is conditioning.
"If you don't have conditioning you don't have your legs, if you don't have your legs you don't make any of your jumpshots."
The CKSS Golden Hawks take on Northern in Sarnia at 6:30pm Tuesday. Elsewhere Wallaceburg faces Tilbury, and Blenheim plays Chatham Christian.
