A tournament victory in Springhill is one of this season’s highlights for Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School’s varsity boys basketball team, which won the Springhill event on the second weekend of the new year.
The Vikings defeated Oxford, North Nova and Sommet in winning the Springhill tournament. It was their second tournament title of the season. The first was at Annapolis West.
More recently, the Vikings were 66-44 winners over Park View in a league game in Yarmouth on Monday of this week. High scorers for YCMHS in the Jan. 20 victory were Noah Wilcox with 21 points, Josh Muise with 16 and Randal Fells with 12. The Viking boys have another league game scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 22, at Central Kings.
Future action for the Yarmouth team includes league games at Horton Feb. 5, at home against Central Kings Feb. 8 (at 1 p.m.) and at Avon View Feb. 13.
In its first three Division 1 league games of the season, the Vikings defeated Avon View and lost to Horton and Park View. (Their Jan. 20 home game with Park View was their fourth league game of the season.)
Discussing the Yarmouth boys squad a couple of days after the Springhill tournament, YCMHS head coach Dana Cunningham said, “They’re really meshing well as a team and playing as a team.”
The roster consists of six Grade 12 students, six in Grade 11 and one in Grade 10.
“One thing about the core group of Grade 12s is they’ve been playing together from junior high,” Cunningham said. “Being involved in basketball for as long as I have, I saw them play at the junior high level and now I’m seeing them at the senior high level and seeing how much they’ve improved. Not just with their athleticism and basketball skills but also as people.”
Seeing how these players have developed since their junior high years has been “amazing,” she said.
Cunningham has been coaching Viking boys basketball for a decade. Her husband, Rob, is assistant coach this year. Chuck Smith, who had been working with Cunningham in coaching the Viking boys – and who previously had spent many years as head coach of the YCMHS boys – stepped away from the high school team last year, although he remains involved in the sport.
“He’s helping out with minor basketball, coaching the little ones,” Cunningham said.
