It wasn’t that long ago that every high school basketball team in the province thought their season had come to a premature end.
With ongoing job action by the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation seeing the high school provincial basketball championship extravaganza known as Hoopla cancelled earlier this week, players everywhere expressed disappointment in losing out on the biggest games of the season.
But that incredibly bad news was immediately followed up with the best news possible -- the SHSAA would be staging a one-game provincial championship showdown in Moose Jaw, featuring the top two seeds in each division playing for gold and third and fourth seeds playing for bronze.
As a result, 48 teams from all over the province will be in Canada’s Most Notorious City on Saturday, battling for medals at gyms all over the city.
It all means the top-seed Vanier Spirits will have a chance to defend their 2023 4A girls provincial championship when they take on the second-seed Meadow Lake Spartans in their gold medal contest at 7 p.m. at Vanier.
“It’s a different way of doing things, but’s great to see the SHSAA board looking outside the box to find a way to help out students and families in the province and it’s great to see it all come together,” said Spirits head coach Christa Lapointe. “It’s great for the community, too, with all those teams coming in. It’s going to be a great day of basketball, for sure.”
Unlike their 4A boys gold medal counterparts, the Spirits haven’t had a chance to face their gold medal opponent this season, making the showdown a battle of the unknown for both teams.
“We haven’t seen them this year, but we know they have a strong coaching staff and a committed group of players,” Lapointe said. “They like to shoot and they have a bit of an inside game, too, so it’s nothing that we haven’t seen this year even though we haven’t seen them specifically, You just have to make sure you prepare and the girls keep their mind in the game and then see how it goes.”
Vanier does have one advantage in that they’ve faced an incredibly tough opponent multiple times this season, and while they weren’t able to take a game off the Swift Current Ardens, having the opportunity to play an elite 5A team has helped with their development.
“We had a number of 5A tournaments and definitely levelled up in the level of play we had in those games,” Lapointe said. “The competition we’ve seen all season just makes it better for all types of games and teams we might play and hopefully it pays off on Saturday.”
The Spirits aren’t the only 4A Moose Jaw girls team in action during the day, as the Central Cyclones and Peacock Toilers will battle for bronze at 1:45 p.m. at Sask Polytechnic.
Check out below to find the full schedule for the day!
