The second annual Yorkton Senior Men鈥檚 Basketball Tournament was held this past weekend at Sacred Heart鈥檚 Halo Dome with a total of eight teams combining to play 12 games over the two day event.
Of the eight teams only one was able to leave victorious with Knuckles - a team made up of several former and current Yorktonites 鈥� reigning supreme via a 79-72 victory over the visiting Swift Current Stompers.
Knuckles opened the tournament up with a lopsided 86-43 victory over the Springside Boom before dropping the Melfort Value Buckets 84-60 in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile the Stompers proved to be terrible house guests, dropping a pair of Yorkton teams - the Yorkton Runnin鈥� Rebels and the Yorkton Cobras聽 - 75-61 in the first round (Runnin鈥� Rebels) and 60-54 in the semi-finals (Cobras) to earn their spot in the championship game.
The Yorkton Cobras finished in third place, edging the Melfort Value Buckets 71-68 in the third place game while the Estevan Flame Throwers finished in fifth place with a 70-66 win over Yorkton Saved by the Bench in the 鈥楤鈥� side final.
The Runnin鈥� Rebels picked up their lone win of the tournament in the seventh place game, defeating the Springside Boom by 11, 70-59 while Springside became the only team to not drink from the chalice of victory over the weekend by losing all three games they played.
Overall tournament co-organizer Garrett Karcha, head coach of the Sacred Heart Saints senior boys鈥� basketball team and member of the Yorkton Cobras, felt the tournament was very competitive despite not quite knowing what each team taking part brought to the table in terms of skill. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit of a crapshoot because we don鈥檛 know how good these teams are. A lot of the time these teams come in and we ask them what their calibre or level of play is and they tell us but we just have to take their word for it,鈥� offered Karcha, continuing, 鈥淭hey all put 鈥楤鈥� this year aside from one team, so we kind of tried to set it up evenly and I think we were successful.
I think Jason (Payne, Regional Raiders senior boys鈥� head coach) did a great job of setting up the draw. The games have all been pretty good and I think they鈥檝e all been competitive.鈥�
Payne echoed Karcha鈥檚 statement, but added that the reason almost all of the games were competitive was because the players took the games seriously, much like they would have done years ago in high school. 鈥淭here have been some games where people had really cared about it (the game),鈥� mentioned Payne. 鈥淭hings got pretty intense sometimes because they showed that the desire to compete doesn鈥檛 leave just because you鈥檝e aged.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just your skill and how sore you are afterwards that change.鈥�
Speaking of high school, the tournament itself is a joint fundraiser for high school basketball with all money raised going towards offsetting in-season costs for both the YRHS Raiders and SHHS Saints senior boys鈥� basketball teams. 鈥淲e use it (the money raised) to basically enhance the things that we do with our programs,鈥� said Payne. 鈥淲hether it鈥檚 to subsidize costs or buy coaching materials and training aids, or send kids to camps. Whatever is going to help boost our programs is what we use it for.鈥�
Karcha agreed with his fellow high school coach, but added that the money from this tournament is also used to help offset costs from the high school charity basketball tournament that both schools co-host called the York City Classic, saying, 鈥淚t also helps to cover some of the costs from the York City Classic as well. We put on the York City Classic and all of that money is donated so we get some shirts made up and stuff, it helps offset those costs too.鈥�
Call for teams
With the second annual Senior Men鈥檚 Basketball Tournament officially wrapped up, both Karcha and Payne are already looking to the future with the hopes of expanding the next instalment of the tournament to 12 teams and a new division. 鈥淲e would like to grow it (the tournament) into a women鈥檚 tournament as well,鈥� suggested Payne. 鈥淲e had a few teams interested but things just fell apart in the end this year.
鈥淲e would also like to see more men鈥檚 teams join next year as well.鈥�
If anyone would like to pre-register a team for the 2016 Yorkton Senior Men鈥檚 (and Women鈥檚) Basketball tournament please call Garrett Karcha (306-783-3128) or Jason Payne (306-786-5560) at their respective schools, Sacred Heart and the Regional.
