The recent Yorkton Elementary School Sports Association (YESSA) city basketball championships featured some of the most exciting local basket competition seen in the area.
YESSA vice-president Mark Schendel reports that this year the basketball season was switched with the local badminton season. The annual championship tournament wraps up the current season which began in early March, Schendel notes.
This year the event had seven schools participating in girls' basketball and eight teams competing in the boys' division, Schendel reports.
Schendel suggests that the level of play and skill level of the players has been steadily improving over the past 11 years he's been associated with YESSA competition. "Playing sports is cerebral. It does require a lot of thought," he claims. He believes the youngsters coming out of the current elementary basketball programs and going into high school programs are more intelligent basketball players.
All coaches deserve a lot of credit for doing a fantastic job all season, Schendel declares. The annual tournament showcases their work.
He thanks the host schools, Dr. Brass, Columbia, M.C. Knoll and St. Michael's for the use of their gym facilities.
He thanked the M.C. Knoll canteen which was open and working all week.
Schendel also thanked the officials who worked the event, officiating with integrity all week.
He appreciated all the fan support throughout the tournament.
Ultimately he appreciated the players who put in so much time into the sport all season long.
Sport teaches a lot of life lessons, Schendel suggests. Youngsters learn work ethic, commitment, leadership, and teamwork. While some of the young athletes may not continue in the sport after high school, or beyond the elementary level, they will be able to apply the tools they acquired through school sports, he states. "Whatever they decide to do later on in life they can draw on these experiences, he closes.
The 2011 YESSA girls' basketball champions the M.C. Knoll Knights, who led the championship final from start to finish, downed runners up St. Mary's girls 23-18.
M.C. Knoll Knights girls' coach Benson McDowell, says the year was fun. The team started with 27 girls' signed up which showed the interest in basketball. "The girls have been dedicated throughout the whole year, showing up for every practise, putting in their entire effort and the result show what they did," says McDowell.
He's been coaching some of the girls since their sixth grade and has been very impressed with their improvement over the years.
In arguably the most exciting final game of the tournament the St. Michael's Stars boys came back from a 10 point deficit with less than a quarter of the game to play to tie the game at 23 at the end of regulation time. Capitalizing on the height advantage of Stars' player Peter Kozushka, the Stars edged out the runners up Yorkdale Royals 28-24 to claim the 2011 YESSA boy's Yorkton City title.
St. Michael's coach Lou Ellert says the ball just started going into the basket for his team in the second half. "In the first half we couldn't buy a basket. We changed our defense a little bit," he says.
"We're usually a better offensive team than we showed tonight but we'll take a win any way we can," Ellert adds.
It was a good season Ellert suggests. He says he enjoyed working with the kids who were good to work with.
