This upcoming weekend Yorkton’s two high school senior boys’ basketball teams, the YRHS Raiders and the Sacred Heart Saints, will put aside their differences and join forces for a far greater cause.
From January 30-31 the two rival basketball teams will come together to welcome 10 other teams from around the province for the fifth annual York City Classic basketball tournament; a tournament that, while certainly competitive, is geared towards raising money for something far more important than competitive sports. “Basically it’s a 12 team tournament and between both Sacred and the Regional, we’re donating 100% of the gate to the Canadian Cancer Society and specifically to Breast Cancer Awareness,” offered Raiders head coach Jason Payne, adding that this is the fifth year that the two schools have co-hosted the tournament. “I think it’s been really positive for us doing this. It’s a pretty positive tradition for us and I think for teams across the province it’s a tournament that they like to come to.”
Garrett Karcha, the head coach of the senior Saints boys’ basketball team, agreed with his Raider counterpart. “It really is for a great cause and it’s something that people enjoy supporting because cancer is something that has tremendously affected so many people,” said the Saints head coach, adding that the reason the tournament even exists is because of something that affected Yorkton’s basketball community over five years ago. “A former Regional kid, Jake Gabel, his mother passed away five-plus years ago from cancer and so we’ve always raised money in her name and that’s where the money is going to be going again, to the Canadian Cancer Society.”
Karcha went on to say that once again the two teams will be wearing pink warm up shirts for the duration of the tournament and that while the players on both the Raiders and Saints will want to succeed throughout the tournament, especially against each other, they are also keeping the bigger picture in sight. “The players, they know it’s an important tournament,” mentioned Karcha, continuing, “Of course we always want to beat the Regional and they always want to beat us, that’s just the way it is, but first and foremost Jason and I, as well as the players, we want to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness and promote basketball at the same time.”
So far the York City Classic has raised over three thousand dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society over its first four years, including nearly $800.00 (CAD) last year.
The two teams will also be collecting cash donations for the Canadian Cancer Society throughout the tournament. Both the YRHS and SHHS senior boys’ basketball teams begin tournament play at noon on Friday.
Competition
Aside from the good cause, the tournament is just that: a tournament.
So it only makes sense that the Yorkton teams, the YRHS Raiders and the Sacred Heart Saints, have been hard at work trying to improve their skills ahead of the big 12-team tournament this coming weekend.
The Saints will look to veteran Tannum Wyonzek for leadership once again while hoping that the sharpshooting Jake Javier can find his range from long distance in order to keep the games within reach.
The Raiders, meanwhile, hope that their suffocating defence will continue and that their offence, which has been hot and cold this season, will have a break out tournament.
