Humboldt Collegiate Institute honoured a pair of local high school sports legends on the weekend.
The Mohawks played host to the Kevin J. Grieman Memorial Pink Tournament and Cancer Fundraiser on Dec. 9-10.
The tournament was held as part of the pink game movement, which started in Assiniboia in 2009.
With the Mohawks already on board to host the pink game, the unfortunate passing of both Wade Weseen and Kevin Grieman earlier this year made for a perfect opportunity to honour them during the pink tournament.
“Because of their huge contributions to the programs… so I thought it was kind of an easy fit to honour these two giants of school sports who just really built the programs in Lake Lenore and HCI,” says tournament Organizer Kerri Archibald, who was also Weseen’s niece.
Since the tournament honoured both men, Archibald saw a perfect fit between HCI and Lake Lenore, since Grieman coached for HCI and Weseen coached for Lake Lenore so this year the Mohawks hosted Lake Lenore in the pink game, buying the Lancers pink jersey’s, meaning next season the Lancers will be hosting the pink game.
Prior to the pink game the four teams who have all been a part of the pink game movement lined up at centre court to take a photo before a video tribute played honouring both men, with past and current athletes and coaches talking about the impact the men had on their lives.
Originally, Archibald says she planned on doing a photo tribute to the men, but decided the video would be a nicer idea.
“It kind of amalgamated into people discussing it and adding those photos in that we found so it was kind of a nice touch.”
Archibald was really surprised to see so many people who came out to see the tribute, noting that there were people who could not get into the gym because it was so full.
“I do plan to post the video to our Facebook event page so if people didn’t get to see it they’ll have a chance to view it there.”
Seeing so many people who wanted to be there for the tribute is a testament to how important both Weseen and Grieman were to so many people, says Archibald.
“I saw some parents of athletes that my uncle Wade coached when I was like 5 years old who came… same with some of Kevin’s boys that he coached in the early ‘90s were there. So you can just see that those two men were so important to people and they wanted to come and honour them as well.”
In addition to the video tribute the Mohawks also received a great deal of support from local businesses as they had 71 items available to be bid on through a silent auction, which was great to see says Archibald.
“I think I sent out about 200 letters asking for donations and there was probably only a handful of people who declined to participate in the fundraiser which I was really shocked by and lots of people who did donate told me their story like my dad died of cancer or I’m a cancer survivor. So I think because they’ve been touched by it they were more willing to donate.”
The Mohawks also received clothing packages from a number of colleges and universities where former HCI Mohawks basketball players now play, which were raffled off, which included Taylor and Paige Crozon, Lindsey Larson, who plays volleyball, Susanne Skulski, Brianne Hergott and Angela Baran.
“When I approached them I asked lots of them to be a part of the video and they were just really willing to help because Kevin had such a good influence on them. And obviously the programs they’re with now know how important he was to them and donated the items from their universities and colleges,” says Archibald.
The Mohawks also sold pink tournament t-shirts and pink ribbons to honour loved ones, which went on the KG Wall of Fame.
All of the fundraising efforts paid off in a big way for the Mohawks as they were able to raise approximately $6,000, blowing away what Archibald was expecting, noting she was conservatively hoping to raise $2,500.
The money raised from the tournament will be going towards a family or families in the Humboldt Region who have a loved one battling cancer.
At time of printing Archibald says they are still working out who they might be.
“If there’s anyone who has suggestions we’d be very happy to take it. But I’m also going to talk to the staff and see if there’s any of our students at HCI that have parents or family members that are battling cancer as well. We want to make sure it goes to someone who has travel expenses or things that they want to make sure they get to do if it’s a fatal cancer diagnosis.”
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 18 programs who have become a part of the pink game movement since the beginning with two new members being added this year including Lake Lenore and Three Hill, Alta. meaning the movement will now be moving into Alberta as well.
The Mohawks became involved in the cause last season after they were paid forward by Wynyard, who bought the Mohawks their pink jersey’s.
Overall Archibald was really pleased to see the tournament go as well as it did.
“I put many hours of work to make it happen and then for everything to go off as well as it did really made me happy and to see how much it meant to the Grieman and the Weseen families made it all worth it of course.”
The HCI gym will be full of basketball players again this coming weekend as they host their HCI Alumni basketball games on Dec. 18 with the girls taking the floor at 2:00 p.m. followed by the boys at 4:00 p.m.
