Carlyle's Filipino commmunity not only produced two winning basketball teams during their 6th Annual Basketball tournament-they also proved to be winning hosts.
Eleven teams from Carlyle, Carnduff, Estevan, Moosomin, Oxbow, Weyburn and Virden, Manitoba, competed Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31, with the Carlyle Bombers winning first place. Team Estevan earned second place in the standings, with Team Carnduff coming in third and the Virden Wetpacs finishing in fourth-place. The Carlyle Shooters wwere awarded best uniform honours, while the Weyburn Eagles' muse, Chrisgia Fesalbon was named Best Muse.
Prior the Saturday morning's 8 a.m. opening ceremonies, teams enjoyed a buffet breakfast, courtesy of their Carlyle hosts. Event organizer Benny Caan of Carlyle expained: “Many of our visitors drive a few hours very early to get here, so of course we feed them when they come here. But more importantly, this weekend is about all of us getting together and having fun.”
The event opening with the singing of both the Canadian and Filipino national anthems, followed by a prayer. Each of the eleven teams were introduced and welcomed, with Caan declaring the competition officially open, saying: “This is our yearly action-let's enjoy it and have fun!”
Caan explained that the tournament began as a way members of southeast Saskatchewan's Filipino community-most of whom were new to Canada-to stay in touch.
“We started the idea during those days,” says Caan. “We were all very busy working and were sometimes far apart from each other, so we had limited access as far as seeing each other.”
“We came up with the idea of the tournament as a way to see each other and play basketball together.”
“And it's still going, six years later.”
