U10

Basketball tryouts for girls in grades 3-5 will begin on Monday 🏀 All skill levels are welcome!

To register or learn more about our rep program, visit the tryout page here

First, I’d like to thank our President, Tom, for giving me the opportunity to coach the U10 girls team this year. I was truly blessed with a wonderful group of kids and incredibly supportive parents. Thanks as well to the entire executive for the countless hours you’ve dedicated to making this season such a success.

To my fellow coaches and assistant coaches, great job this season! The dedication and enthusiasm you brought were instrumental in helping these girls grow.

These U10 girls have shown incredible commitment since day one. Their love for the game and for each other has been inspiring to witness. At our very first practice, I told them three things: defense will win games, cutting to the net will teach you to score, and sportsmanship will make you a true teammate. We carried those principles throughout the season, and they became the foundation of our success.

We began the season in Division 3, unsure of what to expect. Even with only a few practices behind us, the girls quickly showed their ability to run the ball, score, and defend. Many of our early opponents weren’t quite at our level, so we focused on playing with discipline and respect. It became clear that we could work on other areas, like passing, moving to open space, and boxing out. Our opponents admired our girls, and our sportsmanship was always evident. After winning our first OBL matches, we were moved up to Division 2.

In Division 2, the competition was stronger, and I had the opportunity to challenge the girls further. We practiced twice a week, focusing on skills, offensive drills, set plays, and especially help defense. The team’s dedication and discipline transformed us as the games got tougher. After winning our matches in Division 2, we were moved up again, this time to Division 1, with an impressive 17-0 record.

Playing in Division 1 was a fantastic experience as it finally gave us some tough competition in our age group, including a few hard-earned losses. This taught the girls the importance of hard work, teamwork, and mental toughness. We finished the season with 23 wins, 4 losses, and took 3rd place in Division 1 and 11th overall in the province. Over time, the girls’ chemistry, commitment, and sportsmanship allowed them to truly play as one.

At the Ontario Cup Championship, we made it to the gold medal game, narrowly losing 17-15. Even though we didn’t win gold, reaching the final was a huge achievement. Their relentless defense, scoring, passing, rebounding, and support for each other earned them a silver medal and a season finish as Division 1 silver medalists and 10th overall in the province. I’m incredibly proud of them and all they’ve achieved. I saw their confidence, physicality, and focus strengthen throughout the season.

Playing against a few U11 teams helped prepare us for our U10 victories. Those hard-fought matches showed us the level of talent on our team, with other coaches noting how strong our girls are.

To Irelyn, Heidi, Ruby, Lainey, Annabel, Maddy, Sophia, Londyn, Paige, and Josie—you girls have bright futures ahead of you. Stay focused, work hard, and always believe in yourselves. Coaching you this season has brought me so much joy, and you’ve made me incredibly proud.

My life lesson for you: always #nevergiveup!

Coach Alex

The u10 team played with heart in Brockville this weekend.

Our retuning girls set the tempo early and showed great leadership. Our new players played outstanding D. Well done girls! – Coach

When the U10 Girls started this season, the plan was to get together once a week at Harry J Clarke and work on developing their skills and learning the rules of basketball. They were not even going to register as a competitive team; they would just have some friendly scrimmages with the County Clippers, with parents as refs.

On October 29th the girls had their first ever scrimmages with the Peterborough Power and the County Clippers. They lost the first game to Peterborough, and came out with a victory against the Clippers. After that weekend the girls and their parents caught the basketball fever and decided they wanted to have a chance to play more teams, with actual refs. They registered as a competitive team with OBA shortly after.

The girls went on to play the Clippers multiple times, splitting the season series 4-4, and had a couple more games against the Power that were always close losses, and they lost by a very large margin to the Scarborough Blues.

With only ever beating the Clippers, there were modest expectations of how the girls would do during the 8 team East Meets West tournament they hosted for the end of their season. They did however have more experience than before and added a strong player in Mila Kaliaiev who had finished her season with the U12 girls.

In their first game they lost by 1 point against the Peterborough Power. After shaking off the rust of their first game, they came out firing, scoring their highest season point total of 34 points, while only giving up 7 to the Kanata Cavaliers. To make it to the playoff round they had to now beat the Scarborough Blues who had crushed them earlier in the year, but the girls were up for the challenge! They came out firing again, putting themselves up 8-2 in the first shift. From there it was a battle all game, but they ended up holding the Blues off and winning by 5 to clinch 1st place in their pool!

In the semi-finals against a tough Nepean Blue Devils team, the ball was not dropping like the day before, but the girls team defense continued to be the catalyst for their success, as they won the lowest scoring game of the tournament, 13 – 9. In the finals, they were up against that same Scarborough Blues team once again. It was a back and forth battle, and going into the final shift the game was 13-12 for the Spirits. The last shift went on and scored 6 points while giving up none, and the girls finished their tournament and their season as champions!

These girls showed up to every practice eager and ready to learn from the very beginning. Most of them could not even get the ball in on an eight foot net when the year started, but they persevered and got better because of it. This same growth was evident as well from their first game to their last!

– Coach Michell