It could be a staring contest, but if it's between Estevan and Weyburn, tensions are sure to be through the roof.
For Dustin Wilson, the Estevan Comprehensive School's senior boys basketball assistant coach, it's been a rivalry that he has watched from the bleachers, participated in directly and coached from the sidelines.
"Anything that has to do with those two cities squaring off, it usually gets pretty hyped up," Wilson said.
The flailing hands and over-the-top cheering was a good indication of the high-level excitement surrounding the McLeod series on Feb. 11 at ECS, as hundreds cheered on Estevan and Weyburn who squared off once again.
It was an evening, however, that Wilson won't soon forget.
"It all climaxed at the end of that game," he said. "It was something that I haven't seen before."
Underneath the enthusiasm allocated towards the McLeod series is perhaps another reason for excitement; the growth of the sport of basketball in southeast Saskatchewan.
Hockey, unsurprisingly, still attracts a large number of children at a young age each year, creating a large pool of potential future talent for hockey teams. Associations like the Estevan Student Basketball Association, however, has garnered the interests of young children year after year since its emergence in 2005 years ago and is now the starting point for many children jumping into the sport.
"It's definitely grown since it started," said Kevin Kobitz, the ESBA's co-ordinator, emphasizing the large number of children in the Grade 2-3 category in the ESBA this year.
“In previous years that group was hard to fill, but now kids are sticking with it,” Kobitz said.
He also noted how a number of players on the senior girls and boys basketball teams had played in the ESBA years prior.
Rob Andrist, a prominent figure in the basketball community in and around Estevan, is a basketball referee and mentor for a lot of basketball players in the Energy City.
Before the ESBA emerged, Andrist was the guiding figure for many young players entering high school.
"Rob was a huge part of our enjoyment for basketball as we got older," Wilson said, while reminiscing about the last McLeod series game he played in 2004.
Estevan lost that series, but Wilson made sure to stick with the sport and keep close tabs on the ESBA and the players that entered high school, much like Andrist. As a result, he was able to work with several young players during their junior years in high school. A lot of them made it on to this year's senior team that won the McLeod series.
Interestingly enough, the boys team that won the popular basketball series this year played a similar style to the one played by the 1984 team, which according to Andrist, consisted of a 'run and gun' attitude.
"There were no big, dominant players in the paint," he added. "We scored a lot on the fast break."
Even Weyburn mirrored their 80's counterpart.
"They're always this very well-coached team with a structured system," he said.
The senior boys poor start to the final match against Weyburn this year, was also an exact reflection of the hole the ’84 senior boys team put themselves in, as they fell behind 10-0 early on in the game.
Wilson and other basketball enthusiasts have come together to spearhead the creation of a club team in Estevan, currently known as the Boomslangers.
The team first emerged in 2014 shortly after the basketball season at ECS came to an end.
It has attracted teens from Estevan, Oxbow, Carnduff and Lampman.
The team is hoping to build on last year's success sometime around April.
Andrist and Kobitz acknowledged the growth of basketball in recent years, but noted the sport requires a significant amount of hand-eye coordination and quick feet, alongside an in-depth understanding of the long-list of rules.
"It's a complicated sport," Andrist said.
