They were only in town for a couple of days, but the players on the Carmacks Cougars made sure to make the most out of their opportunities at this year's Early Bird Basketball tournament.

The girls team competed on Friday and Saturday at Vanier Catholic Secondary School, which hosted the Grade 8's and finished with a record of 1-2.

The lone victory was against Vanier Blue, which had to default because they didn't have enough players. For the added experience, both teams still played a friendly game.

Despite finishing the tournament with a loss to the F.H. Collins Gold team, Cougars head coach Sarah Taylor said the team achieved all of its goals and improved with every game.

"It went really well," she said. "The girls started out a little rough, but we came back and improved tremendously. I'm very proud of them."

As a result of the smaller population size in Carmacks, the Cougars team was made up of players from four different grade levels, including Grades 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Taylor said some of the highlights included the progress the group made in the defensive end, getting open and advancing down the court with the ball.

She was also impressed with how the team was able to get over early tournament nerves and play a more aggressive style towards the end.

"In the first game they were very timid and not wanting to get in there and by the second game they were falling on the ground and wrestling for the ball," Taylor said. "I really liked to see that. They just kept improving, kept getting better and better."

There is no basketball season in Carmacks and besides taking part in tournaments held in Whitehorse, team's are limited to just practicing and playing the occasional game against other community squads.

Taylor said the team had a lot of fun and they plan on participating in more tournaments in Whitehorse in the New Year.

"We had a blast and we would just like to thank everyone who accommodated us here," she said. "It was great to see the support and people coming out and watching."

Cougars forward Hayley Mintz, 13, was also pleased with how the team played at the Early Bird tournament.

"I think it went great," she said. "We were kind of nervous at first, but then we got into it. It was fun."

Tatsyana Baily, one of the four Grade 6 players on the Cougars basketball squad, said she enjoyed her time in Whitehorse.

"It's really exciting for me because I'm the youngest on the team and I think I did pretty well," she said. "We had lots of fun."

Carmacks was the only non-Whitehorse team at this year's Early Bird. In the past, teams from Haines Junction, Watson Lake and Teslin have taken part.

The Grade 8 group featured two teams from each school on the boys side, while the girls had two teams from both Vanier and F.H. Collins.

Sean McCarron, the co-ordinator for the Grade 8's, said he was pleased with the way the tournament went on the weekend.

"This is a great tournament because it allows the kids to compete a little bit, but also to see where their strengths and maybe weaknesses are right away," he said. "It's good for coaches because then coaches have a chance to sort of focus their practices next week the week after for when they actually start league games, which would be in January."

The high school basketball season began last week and most teams had between one or two practices before participating in the Early Bird.

McCarron, who is also a coach for Basketball Yukon, said it was nice to have Carmacks at the tournament.

"It's kind of a chance for them to showcase, but also a chance just for them to get to the big city, to get to Whitehorse and bond and have a good time," he said. "They had some Grade 6's competing against Grade 8's, so for those girls hopefully they aren't intimidated in future years to come back because they will have already played against kids older than them."

He said it is important that the kids have some early games in the season.

"It's important to give these guys a chance to kind of get hooked to get excited for the year and then they are going to have a lot more practice time once January rolls around and for the next two weeks to work on their deficiencies and weakness and hopefully improve," McCarron said.

"That's why I don't mind playing these early games. It's just a tool to use to improve later on. That's what all these games are."

To allow for more games, the Early Bird used a four 10-minute running clock.

The tournament not only was beneficial to both players and coaches, it was also used to train junior referees, who assisted games played throughout the two days.

There wasn't as many teams in the Grade 9/10 division, which featured four in the girls pool and five in the boys.