Red Deer Polytechnic Kings Basketball looks for a clean slate under new head coach

Red Deer, October 14, 2023 – Under a new head coach, the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings Basketball team has already shown significant improvement from last year as they set their eyes on making the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Championship which will be hosted by the top seed in the North Division.

Kings Basketball started off the last season with four straight losses but bounced back to complete the 2022/2023 schedule with a 13-8 record which was good enough for fourth place in the ACAC South Division. They managed to win their first play-in game against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers. But in a very close matchup against the St. Mary's University Lightning, the Kings came up just short of moving on to the ACAC Championships.

After hiring Head Coach Jedell Foster in the summer, the Kings have gone a perfect 8-0 in the pre-season. Foster is quite content with what he has seen so far from his new team.

"We added six new guys on top of the players that are returning so the chemistry is slowly coming together. We have a good brotherhood. The guys like each other on and off the court. We share the ball well and play at a fast pace. They are slowly adapting to my culture and style of play which I think is great and fun to see but I still believe there is lots of work to do."

The Kings Head Coach recruited a couple of players out of Ontario including guard Efe Iyamu (Open Studies), who Foster has mentored since he was 16 years old so the coach was quite excited to have the guard from Toronto, ON attend the Polytechnic and play for him once again.

The Kings coaching staff was also able to recruit guard Deandre Rowe (Open Studies). Foster, the former coach of the Fleming Knights of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA), had nothing but good things to say about Rowe and one other recruit who will join the team in the second semester.

"Deandre Rowe is a point guard from Ottawa, ON. I think he has the ability to be the Rookie of the Year and All-Canadian in this league in the years to come. Zachary Morris is someone to look out for in the second semester. He is just working hard in the classroom and training very hard so he will be a nice piece of the puzzle in the second half of the season."

On top of his recruiting class, the former OCAA coach was able to return the three Brazilians, Bernardo Moller (Business Diploma), Jose Mauro (Business Certificate) and Eduardo Crespo (Business Diploma).

Foster believes these three international student-athletes will be huge for the Kings in the season. Crespo, Moller and Mauro will be looked upon for scoring, rebounding and defending some of the best players the ACAC has to offer. The Kings new coach said the Brazilians have been nothing but professional with the coaching change and they bought into my style of play right away. He is very happy to have Crespo, Moller and Mauro aboard.

The Kings will open up their season against the reigning ACAC and Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Champions. But Foster is not looking at it like they are the champions. He has his team in the mindset that it is a new season and everything that happened last year is wiped clean as soon as they step on that court in the Fas Gas – On the Run Gymnasium on October 20 at 8 pm.

"I know they have won six in a row. We just have to go in there and play our game. Just stick to the script. Everyone around the league has been seeing what we are capable of doing and I think the teams know they will be in for a dogfight in every game. It is going to be electrifying and we know what we have to do take care of business.