Griffins’ year-long win streak something to celebrate

Imagine a team going an entire year – 365 days – without losing a single game.

That’s what the Horton Griffins D-1 boys’ basketball team accomplished just after Christmas.

With their 77-57 win over Halifax Grammar School in the final of their Subway tournament Dec. 29, Horton, which last tasted defeat Dec. 29, 2006, not only won the tournament but ensured they would go “2007 and oh” for the entire calendar year.

To put this into perspective, since they lost 74-70 to QEH in the final of last year’s Subway, the Griffins played 43 games during 2007 and won them all.

The streak, intact at the time of writing, reached 44 games when the Griffins topped Park View 86-73 January 2. (Chances are it will have reached 47 by the time you read this).

In case you think these wins have all come against less-than-stellar competition, the current streak also included a provincial D-1 title last spring.

Horton’s accomplishment is due to a combination of a talented coaching staff, that complements each other, and a mix of players more than willing to buy into the coaches’ system.

Much has been said of the record of Griffins’ head coach Tim Kendrick, whose 500-plus wins in 18 years at Horton, last year’s provincial title and many runner-up finishes speak for themselves. Kendrick has learned a lot over the years, both from competition and experience and from cultivating friendships with coaching icons like Steve Konchalski, Bev Greenlaw and Ian MacMillan.

Less publicized, but just as important to Horton’s successes, are the contributions of long-time assistants Marvin Rhyno and Jay Robichaud – both 2007 inductees into Horton’s Basketball Hall of Fame – and more recent addition Bob McGill.

It’s a well-known fact in sport players often credit their coaches for their successes. Coaches, on the other hand, tend to credit their players who, after all, are the ones who play the games.

It certainly isn’t hurting Horton to have Ellis Ffrench and Jeremy Dunn, two of the finest high school players in Nova Scotia, on the roster this season, as well as the greatly-improved Pat Riley. Most Griffins’ opponents will acknowledge you might succeed in stopping one of the three - but very seldom all three.

At the same time, everyone on the Horton roster – both last year’s roster and this year’s – has contributed in their own way.

Don’t forget: Horton lost four senior players – Brandon MacInnis, Joe Kendrick, Josh McGill and Nathan Dunn – to graduation last June. A fifth player, Evan Baird, chose not to play this season to concentrate on his studies.

The Griffins haven’t missed a beat.They aren’t quite as deep as last year, and their younger players lack experience. But instead of going through the motions against lesser teams, Kendrick and his staff use those match-ups to get their younger players quality minutes.

This approach is the reason Horton is almost always among the contenders for the provincial D-1 boys’ title – and can be expected to be there for the foreseeable future.

The Griffins, as Coach Kendrick points out, never need to rebuild, just reload. Even if players may not necessarily be ready for prime time when they start, they surely will be before they’re done.