Treherne Collegiate Institute’s varsity boys basketball team had an extremely successful season going before the COVID-19 pandemic brought it to a sudden halt.

Despite the abrupt finish, Basketball Manitoba recognized the province's best athletes and coaches from the 2019-20 season. Treherne coach Joel Rheault was named Coach of the Year and describes his feelings about receiving that honour.

“To be honest it was kind of bittersweet,” says Rheault. “We had a really good season and we were ranked at the top the entire way through. Our main goal was a provincial banner, championship banner. It was nice to be recognized as the Coach of the Year but, at the same time, I would’ve traded ten Coach of the Years in exchange for a provincial banner.”

Rheault says the award should actually be named the ‘Coaches of the Year’ as his co-coach helped immensely throughout the entire season. He talks about who else deserves credit for this accomplishment.

“Obviously the roster is a big part of it,” Rheault explains. “We had four guys who were very dedicated, from their Grade 9 year to their Grade 12 season, this season. They were successful all the way through, they won every zone banner they could’ve won for varsity and JV. It just makes it easy to coach when you have got guys who are that dedicated and work on all their own personal and individual skills on their own time, then we can dedicate practice time to the team skills and development.”

He says one of his favourite parts of coaching is watching the team improve from the beginning to the end of the season. Rheault adds, watching the players go through those mental struggles at the beginning of the year and then seeing their confidence by the end of the season is always gratifying. 

Rheault says next season will be a bit more of a rebuilding year as they are losing three players who were named to the graduating all-star team this season. However, he does believe they will still be able to remain competitive.