Zone 7 makes history with gold medal at 2018 Alberta Summer Games

The Zone 7 boys basketball team was out for dinner on their first day of competition (July 20) at the 2018 Alberta Summer Games in Grande Prairie, where coach Brent Anderson checked his phone to get the latest scores, and realized what they meant for his squad.

They had clinched top spot in their pool.

“When I told the boys they erupted in cheering,” Anderson recalls.

“Many patrons at the Boston Pizza were wondering what the fuss was about.”

If finishing first in the round-robin portion of the tournament meant that much to the team, one can only begin to imagine how the 13- and 14-year-old players from Northeastern Alberta felt two days later when they defeated Zone 3, which represents Calgary, 83-67 in the final.

It wasn’t merely the first time Zone 7 had won basketball gold - it was the first time they’d earned a spot on the podium, period.

 “I talked many times from the start that I really wanted this group to make history and win a medal which our zone had never done before,” Anderson says.

“As we started to play the pre-Summer Games schedule we started to realize that our goal could definitely become a reality … From there the goals changed from medaling (to) making the final. and at that point anything could happen.” 

It truly was a Cinderella run for Zone 7, an underdog team if there ever was one. The team had no history of medals to draw upon, a population base dwarfed by the city-based zones, and a geographical expanse larger than any other zone.

They are a part of history as they know they are the first to do something in Summer Games history,” Anderson says of his young charges. “They also know that just because they are from a small town does not mean they can't compete with the big centres.”

Zone 7’s roster includes youth from Fort McMurray, Cold Lake, St. Paul, Lloydminster, Wainwright, Viking and Tofield. Suffice to say, getting everyone together in the same place at the same time was not easy.

“We have players that live six hours apart so we had to find weekends that we could practice when we had kids playing other sports and on club basketball teams.,” Anderson says. “We had great commitment from our entire team.”

Anderson notes the players got along very well, forging friendships during training camp in early July, when they came together for three days in Tofield and stayed overnight in trailers.

“They developed great bonds during that time and it translated to the Summer Games,” the coach adds.

Zone 7 started its road to gold in Grande Prairie on July 20 with a 85-48 victory over Zone 2, before rallying to defeat Zone 3 72-68. After learning they had clinched first place, Zone 7 recharged and came out the following morning (July 21) with a 62-52 victory over Zone 1 to complete the round-robin portion with a perfect 3-0 record.

“It seemed like every game we were creating more history as a group,” Anderson says. “First Zone 7 team to go 2-0 on the first day, first to beat Calgary, first to go undefeated in pool play. ”

Zone 7 topped Zone 4, 78-56, in semi-final action on the evening of July 21, setting up a re-match with Zone 3 for the gold medal the next day (July 22).

After falling behind early against Zone 3, Zone 7 stormed back to take a lead into halftime. Anderson knew Zone 3 would come out of the break by mounting a charge, and told his pupils to maintain their composure when the opposition got momentum.

When Zone 3 trimmed the lead to just four points, Anderson called a timeout to regroup. The Zone 7 players responded with an 11-0 run that effectively put the game away.

“It showed our resiliency that every time Calgary would come back we would stop their run and come back at them stronger,” says Anderson. 

“From there (it was memorable) being able to watch our boys celebrate with their teammates and