Hundreds of people descended upon Lake Lenore over the weekend for their annual Wade Weseen Memorial Tournament on Feb. 9-10.
This year’s event was a little different as it was also a pink tournament, which Lake Lenore was required to host after being the recipients of pink jerseys from Humboldt last year.
The tournament was held as part of the pink game movement, which started in Assiniboia in 2009.
The game was the brain-child of Assiniboia basketball coach Al Wandler who saw pink jerseys in a basketball uniform catalogue and liked how unique they looked.
With his father stricken with cancer at the time and Wandler putting an emphasis on having his players give back to the community through volunteer work, he approached the school’s SRC about the idea of purchasing the jerseys for the school to have with the idea of having his team host a pink game to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
The SRC agreed and on Nov. 27 the Rockets hosted their longtime rival, Fillmore, with the school able to raise $1,700.
Wandler hoped the idea would spawn from there with other schools jumping on board but after some time it appeared it would not continue so the following season the Rockets hosted the game again, this time buying pink jersey’s for Fillmore, with the condition that they would then pay it forward to another team so that the pink game would grow.
Today, there are currently more than 18 programs who have become a part of the pink game movement since the beginning, with the movement even entering Alberta as well.
This year Lake Lenore passed the pink movement on to grid 777 rivals Middle Lake.
This year’s tournament is also special for another reason, as it marked the first full year that both the tournament and the gym are named after Weseen, after Lake Lenore announced the new name of the gym at last year’s event.
“Wade would be so happy to see everything that’s going on here. The gym last night was full, you couldn’t get another person in it for our game against Birch Hills. That’s what he liked and it was just a positive game, a very close game, it came down to the last minute and he would have loved to see it so it was great,” admitted Lake Lenore head coach Curtis Strueby.
The tournament featured eight teams, including five local teams with Lake Lenore, Middle Lake, Humboldt, Kinistino, and Birch Hills which all brought a lot of fans, as well as Meath Park, Moose Jaw Cornerstone and Kenaston.
Having so many fans was great to see, says Strueby, who notes it is a testament to each of the schools’ programs.
“The amount of people here is just incredible this weekend, I mean the place was full from the get-go… to get that support, that says something about their programs as well. Their parents, and their fans, they come and support the kids playing.”
With three of the eight teams at the tournament in the same conference come playoff time, Strueby also noted this is a chance for his team to get some reps in before they see these teams again at conferences.
“Come conference time, it starts. The majority of the years, the teams at the conference level you don’t see those games but we’re going to get it right off the get-go.”
For the fourth time in five years, Kenaston took home the title.
In addition to basketball the tournament also featured a silent auction complete with items donated by local individuals and businesses, which is also great to see, says Streuby.
“Thanks for all the support from community members, staff members and students and the parents. We’re shrinking every year unfortunately and that means less families and that means less parents and that means less students and so that means less volunteer base,” he said.
“That being said the support has not waivered one bit. We’ve had parents bring extra food his year, we’ve had to cook extra soups and make extra deserts and donated extra stuff for our silent auctions, so the support is just incredible but that’s what it’s all about. That’s the program that Wade and Val Weseen have built here and it’s still going strong.”
