Horns hit the court once again

By Dale Woodard on March 11, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDsports@lethbridgeherald.com

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s basketball team is taking baby steps back onto the court.

They are socially-distanced — and at first numerically restricted — baby steps, but baby steps nonetheless.

For the first time since Nov. 27, the Horns were able to step back onto their 1st Choice Savings Centre home court Monday.

Granted, the practice sessions were one-on-one at first before moving up to 10 players on the court at one time, socially distanced and with other protocols in place as well.

Still, it’s good to be back, said Pronghorns head coach Dave Waknuk, as the teams gently return to hopefully a somewhat normal schedule in the face of the still-going COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a bit of light at the end of the tunnel,” said Waknuk.

“We had been in and out of the court before (Nov. 27) because of various colds and flus and scares of COVID. But Nov. 27 was the last time we were all together.”

Mondays sessions were one player and one coach, said Waknuk. “We got to work with the athletes. It was good to see everybody. We got to be on the court at the same time and actually have some human interaction, which was good, too.”

On Monday evening, the government announced reduced restrictions for post secondary athletes.

“So now there was the possibility for us to have 10 athletes on the court at the same time, socially-distanced and no sharing equipment. So that’s going to help us in areas like the weight room and even on the court where we’ll be able to have a few more bodies per basket.”

Working alongside assistant coach Paige Crozon, Waknuk went through roughly half hour one-on-one clinics with his players Monday and Tuesday.

“Then the next (player) would come in and we would work with them and cycle through everybody,” he said. “We started off with 30 minute sessions because I think that’s where we’re at right now. We split them up over two days. It was only a two-hour block each day. It was just fun to be out there, so we weren’t too concernced about the times.”

The overall vibe was upbeat.

“Lots of smiles coming into the gym,” said Waknuk. “They’ve put in a lot of work to put themselves in the shape they need to be, virtually. They’ve been great with everything we’ve been doing, but it’s just a different thing when you have in-person interaction. The coaches get to see and talk to people.”

The still somewhat-restricted return to practice bodes well for the fall after the 2020-21 Canada West season was sidelined due to the pandemic.

“Things are happening now,” said Waknuk. “I think the positive news is everyone is planning for a season next year and it feels like there’s a positive vibe around it. The particulars and all the other pieces still need to be worked out, but I think that’s going to be worked out shortly and I know discussions are ongoing. But at I think at least from that perspective we feel a lot more positive about this fall than we did going into last fall.

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