The Memorial Sea-Hawks men’s basketball team will be exceptionally young this season, with seven rookies on the roster. In addition, there are no fourth- or fifth-year players on head coach Peter Benoite’s 12-man travelling squad.
The Sea-Hawks are in southern Ontario for four exhibition games, the first of which was Thursday night against the Laurier Golden Hawks.
“This weekend will be pretty tough, as four games in four days is tough on any group, and for a young team, it will be an extra test,” said Benoite. “But I figure we’ll jump right into things, test them early, and see where we have to go from there”.
The hoopsers aren’t the only Memorial athletes in Ontario for pre-season play,
The Sea-Hawks women’s volleyball team is in Ottawa for the Gee-Gees Classic, a three-day, 10-team tourney that begins today.
This has become an annual trek for the team, which has been at the University of Ottawa event the past four years, finishing in the top five each time.
The Memorial v-ballers, who are guaranteed at least four matches at the event, are also very young. The team also has seven rookies — the most its ever had — with no fifth-year seniors.
“I think this tournament will be a good indicator on what our team needs to improve on prior to (the start of regular-season AUS play),” said third-year player Belle DeVries.
“I want to walk away from the tournament feeling like we were invested in putting what we have been working on in practice into game play.
“It isn’t about winning right now, it is about trusting in the process”.
The Lady Hawks are missing one of last year’s key players, Emma Hackett, due to a shoulder injury. The team hopes the Clarenville native will be ready to return to the court in the next few weeks.
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