You’ve got to start somewhere.
New athletic director Kyle Peruniak made it a priority to get the basketball program going again at Chemainus Secondary School and is doing exactly that. There will certainly be some initial growing pains, but better to put a team on the floor and begin to build a foundation.
“We had a Junior B program last year and some of them played on it,” said Peruniak.
“It’s like two moves up - the difference in size and speed from the junior game.”
Otherwise, there’s loads of inexperience among the 12 players committed to represent the school on the team this season.
Chemainus suited up for its first game action last week, playing a home-and-home with Gulf Islands Secondary.
“They didn’t go so well,” noted Peruniak of back-to-back losses of more than 30 points, first in Ganges and then at Chemainus Secondary.
But no one was expecting perfection right away, especially since Peruniak considers Gulf Islands to be a mid-ranked AA team while he’s starting out with the Cougars as a low-ranked A squad.
Chemainus is hosting a couple of visiting teams Saturday, facing Esquimalt High AA at 11 a.m. and Cedar A at 2:30 p.m. Peruniak will be looking for the Cougars to show some immediate improvement from their debut games.
“Cedar is someone we’re more interested in beating and more of our same calibre,” he pointed out.