Kodiak men’s basketball had a season full of learning

By Lethbridge Herald on March 5, 2024.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks men’s basketball team had many learning curves throughout this past season that they will use in preparation for next year.

“The learning curve we went through  was plentiful this season,” said Ryan Heggie, Kodiaks men’s basketball head coach.

The Kodiaks roster was young  and only had three veterans with ACAC experience including Filip Karanovic, a first team All-Conference this year, Mason Hoffman, who was a second team All-Conference and Declan Peterson who was a Top 3 big man in the ACAC.

Heggie saw players like Rhett Lewis, Dray Walburger, Cody Tollestrup and to go down the list to even Ty Lewis gain valuable experience.

“We will take that and grow for next season,” said Heggie.

“We also had several walk-on players that were key on several key occasions.”

The Kodiaks were 3-4 near the end of November before a weekend against Medicine Hat College turned things around for the bears.

“After two intense games we swept them and gained some valuable confidence in each other,” said Heggie.

“Games in our league are tough too (and) those wins were very important moving forward in 2024.”

The head coach saw the resilience grow.

“We went through it like I’ve never seen before,” said Heggie, on resilience.

Heggie felt the team was up and down in many key areas of  their game including consistent team defence, assists and patience on the offensive side of the ball.

He didn’t think the championship quarterfinal loss defined their season.

“That loss however really didn’t sum up our season,” said Heggie.

“One win or loss does not define us when the season is seven months long.”

The Kodiaks finished 14-7 and a third place finish in the South Division and ranked #13 in Canada.