The Rainbow School Board Elementary Basketball Championship Tournaments have produced their fair share of juggernaut teams over the years.

The likes of Northeastern Public, MacLeod Public, Lansdowne Public and Churchill Public can all lay claim to mini-dynasties, if you will, teams that have defended championship titles before graduating their core of talent to the high-school ranks.

Few squads, however, can match the run to perfection of the 2024-2025 Lasalle Intermediate Lancers boys, culminating a 30-0 season by taking down the Algonquin Tigers 56-42 in the RDSB final and capturing their sixth tournament of the year in the process earlier this month.

And while there was certainly a nucleus that returned from the Lasalle “A” team of 2023-2024 that finished third in the city, the merger of that small handful with the up and comers from the “B” team that won their divisional playdowns one year ago was at the core of the success of the past few months.

“Some coaches focus more on the better players but I feel that Mister Risto (head coach Rob Risto) really tries hard to build up the players that are maybe not as advanced, the guys who may not have played rep or might not have always been into basketball,” noted returnee Zayden Contois, a young man who lives and breathes the hoop sport daily.

“He tries hard to push them to the higher level and helps them understand the game more.”

Ensuring depth across the roster was critical for a team that downed Algonquin 48-39 to open the season by winning the Northeastern Tournament, twice knocked off Lo-Ellen in a gold medal game and also bested MacLeod to take the Confederation event at the end of March.

Many are the areas of the game where the 2024-2025 Intermediate Lancers have excelled.

“The way that we move the ball was similar with the “A” and “B” teams last year,” noted 14 year old Brody Pelland, an athlete that coach Risto lauded for his willingness to work really, really hard to earn a spot on the team, maintaining that bar with his desire, determination and tenacity each and every time he stepped on the court.

“We would try and be smart with the ball, get it to the basket faster,” added Pelland, who felt that his stamina and his ability to beat a defender one on one were the two facets of his game that most improved this year.

Another newcomer to the “A” team, Jacks Murphy boasts strong basketball bloodlines (his mother is former Lasalle standout and University of Utah graduate Shauna Brouillard), but found himself in no hurry whatsoever to follow in those footsteps.

“It was only in the middle of grade seven that I started to take basketball seriously,” said Murphy, who also enjoys regular Cross Fit workouts with his mom. “At the start of this season, I had to start practicing more. Everyone else was quicker. I had to work up to play with them.”

“I find that my ball handling wasn’t very good; I needed to work on that,” added Murphy. “But with my cardio, I could run up and down the court.”

For as much as a small handful of club basketball players were important cogs in the Lancers’ wheel, Murphy noted that some of the best memories come from those special moments from more unexpected sources.

“I remember when Bryce (teammate Bryce MacNeil) made a three,” he recalled with a smile. “He just ran up the court and shot the ball and got the three – a swish; no rim, no nothing. It went straight in.”

The second youngest of four children in the family, Zayden Contois took to basketball almost immediately, though there was a need to fine-tune his game to create a player who is now far more in control as he navigates the court.

“I’ve always kind of been fast but when I first started, I was running down the court as fast as I could but I couldn’t finish the layup,” noted the grade 8 senior. “Now, I can go up and make it most every time – but I’m still trying to get better in every aspect.”

Noting that good on-court communication is key, especially on defense, Contois nonetheless is adamant that offense is still more difficult to learn well. “There’s so many different aspects to offense that you need to be good at: dribbling, shooting, finishing,” he said.

While it is true that the bulk of the team teachings come courtesy of coach Risto, the leadership group can also lend a helping hand. “Mister Risto obviously can’t help every single player at once so if we see someone doing something wrong, you can help that player and try and correct them,” said Contois.

“The biggest thing is to encourage others.”

A 30-0 mark, a record seldom seen in these parts, would suggest that the approach worked well for the 2024-2025 Lasalle Intermediate Lancers. The balance of the team roster features: Caidan Homeniuk, Josh Sellen, Al Amin Adeoti, Desmond Barhydt, Devin Wreegbo and Eli Cattapan.