Three years ago, Sacred Heart Saints senior boys basketball coach Garrett Karcha and YRHS Raider senior boys basketball coach Jason Payne put together an adult basketball tournament with the hopes of raising money for their respective basketball programs.
That initial tournament saw eight senior men’s basketball teams come together for the inaugural Yorkton City Classic men’s tournament.
Last year, same deal, as just eight teams again competed for the Yorkton City Classic title despite increased interest from men and women alike. “For the first couple of years we only had eight teams come out,” mentioned Karcha, one of the co-organizers of the tournament. “Last year there was also some interest from some ladies teams, but unfortunately we couldn’t get enough teams committed, so we only had the men’s tournament.”
However this year, the tournament’s third year in existence, the competition has grown to include a total of 17 teams – 12 men’s teams and five women’s teams - including six local men’s teams and one local women’s team, proving that senior basketball within Saskatchewan – and especially in Yorkton - is growing. “It’s great to see this tournament grow like this in its third year,” offered Karcha, continuing, “There really are a lot of guys around here that just want to go out and play basketball, but there just isn’t a lot of opportunity in the province for that
“If they play hockey then they have a lot of opportunities to play senior hockey, but there is almost nothing for basketball really, and so we wanted to provide people with a chance to play in a tournament here in Yorkton.”
For women, the opportunity to play in a competitive sporting competition is even more difficult, so the Yorkton City Classic expanding to include a women’s side was wonderful for any woman wanting to play basketball, but until this point might not have had the opportunity to do so. “It’s really nice to get a women’s side in the tournament this weekend,” said female basketball player and YRHS Lady Raider head coach Jessica Kyle. “As we’re trying to grow basketball in Yorkton, it’s great to have a female side of the tournament to expose our students and kids to, and the fans to as well.”
But not only did Karcha and Payne provide people within the community an opportunity to play in an adult basketball tournament, they also allowed younger basketball players to watch and learn from the competing adults – many of whom spent parts of their basketball careers as members of the Regina Cougars and Saskatchewan Huskies. “Not only is this tournament a great chance for guys like myself to come out and play some basketball, but it also allows the younger players to come and watch some basketball that involves players who played university ball in the past,” offered Karcha. “We had players from both schools come out and watch, and on the women’s side of things the Raider girls’ team was playing against teams with many former university players, which is a great learning experience for them.”
Karcha also mentioned that the tournament had also grabbed the attention of some of the younger players, who have apparently expressed interest in playing in the tournament when they’re of age to do so. “I talked to some of the young guys after the games and they said it was a cool experience to come and watch some of these games and that they want to put a team in the tournament when they finish school and graduate,” mentioned Karcha, adding that the tournament ended with nothing but positives. “It was very popular and we had a lot of positive feedback, and so next year we hope to have it grow and make it bigger and better.”
Results
With four more teams added to the men’s mix, as well as a five team women’s round-robin tournament, the third instalment of the Yorkton City Classic proved to be extremely exciting, with many hard fought, closely contested games.
In the end, the host Yorkton Cobras were victorious, going 4-0 on the weekend to claim their first-ever Yorkton City Classic title. “It was great to come out and win our own tournament, and to do so by beating some good teams makes it even better,” said Karcha. “It was our most competitive tournament in the three years that we’ve been doing it and we had a lot of former Huskie and Cougar players playing on teams from all over, so it was good to win.”
The Cobras opened the competition up with a 96-62 win over fellow Yorkton side Saved by the Bench, before narrowly defeating a strong Saskatoon team 82-80 to finish first overall in their pool. “That Saskatoon team was strong,” mentioned Karcha on his team’s second opponent of the tournament. “They play in the ‘A’ division in Saskatoon and had one of the Huskies on their team that won the CIS title a few years ago, so we knew they were going to be a tough team to beat, but we managed to do it.”
The two-point win moved the Cobras to the ‘A’ side semi-finals where they took on the Melfort Value Buckets.
A tough contest saw the two teams continually trade leads, but ultimately it was the Cobras that ended up with the final one in the form of yet another one bucket victory, this time knocking off Melfort 91-89 to advance to the tournament title game against Swift Current.
Yorkton saved their best effort for their final game, leading much of the way to knock off Swift Current 81-71 for their first Yorkton City Classic title.
The Regina Trifons beat Melfort 89-88 for the bronze medal, Saskatoon beat Yorkton Knuckles 69-66 t claim the ‘B’ side title, while Estevan defeated the Yorkton Runnin’ Rebels by two points to take home the ‘C’ side title.
For the women, it was the Schmidt Two team that finished first, going 4-0 throughout the round-robin, including an 82-75 win over the second place Schmidt One team, who finished 3-1 in the competition.
