The U17 Stonewall Swarm capped off one the best seasons in Winnipeg Minor Basketball Association history last month.
The Swarm won the 2024 WMBA Spring Season Championship with a perfect 8-0 regular season record and an even more impressive 4-0 playoff run.
“It was surreal,” said Swarm coach Colton Unger. “That was our first really big win for me and Logan (Logan Wilson, Swarm coach). “The players were excited. A lot of them hadn’t won anything like that either so it was an awesome moment for us coaches and players to get something like that.”
The 2024 team dates back a few seasons to when Unger and Wilson began coaching them.
The players all attend College Stonewall Collegiate and have known each other for years, playing on school teams and in the WMBA with the Swarm.
In playing together for years, they have built team chemistry to the point of being one of the most connected teams on the hardwood.
“You could really tell when playing other teams,” said Unger. “In the city they run community clubs and they don’t know which players they are going to get. We can pick our team so having them play high school together the chemistry was ten times better than any other city team in the league.”
The Swarm defeated every opponent in the regular season by a double-digit margin.
The club often scored over 70 points in a game, even dropping 85 in an early-season game against Selkirk.
Their playoff run was similar. They effectively eliminated Selkirk, Portage, and LWCC en route to the city championship game, which was their closest game of the season.
They played Valour (9-3), keeping the game close in the second half.
Unger said he kept quiet during halftime, knowing his players would be ready to respond in the second half.
“They knew the situation they were in and had to step it up and play their hardest,” said Unger. “They know how to work and knew what needed to be done.”
In the second half, the Swarm were able to step it up and control the game.
They eventually walked away with a 57-51 victory and the 2024 WMBA Spring Season Champions title.
“After a pretty close game, it does a number on your heart, and to win in the end, it was awesome,” said Unger.
The win also earned them their first-ever championship banner.
After completing a perfect season, the 2024 Stonewall Swarm will be remembered as one of the top clubs in WMBA history.
Unger said he enjoyed seeing how much the club developed over the years and is happy to have been a part of it.
He is excited to see where the player’s careers go next
