When the Saskatchewan Roughriders won the 101st Grey Cup in Regina on home turf at Taylor Field, it was a victory not just for the provincial capital, but for an entire province of rabid Rider fans who have turned the team from financial ruin in the 1990's to a country wide phenomenon in becoming the league's model franchise.
On Friday, the Riders continued to include the province in their triumph as the Grey Cup Tour made its way to Yorkton as a long list of star players form the Grey Cup team who have stayed in the province to share their moment with the fans came to Yorkton Co-op to sign autographs in a meet and greet before playing a charity basketball game against the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders to raise funds for Yorkton KidSport.
The events were highly anticipated, and the Yorkton Co-op grocery story had a line that started at the front doors that snaked nearly to the far corner of their store with an estimated 1,000 people taking the chance to meet their Rider heroes and congratulate them on their successful and historic 2013 season.
Leading up to the event, Co-op Food Store general manager Bruce Thurston mentioned how having the opportunity to host the Roughriders was more than worth the headache of hosting 1,000 football fans inside the grocery store during Friday afternoon store hours.
"We have never had the opportunity to do something like host the Riders, and with our natural tie ins with merchandising and the team it was a no brainer for us to accept the offer from organizer Darcy Zaharia and host the event."
Ending off the evening was the exhibition game between the Roughriders and the YRHS Raiders where every seat at the YRHS gym was filled and the school along with the Riders raised well over $1000 for Yorkton KidSport by way of a silver collection at the door.
While the Raiders ended up losing to the Roughriders, who showed that they can also play some basketball in addition to being some of the best players in the CFL, Raiders head coach Jason Payne was satisfied that his players got a lifetime memory in competing against the likes of Grey Cup heros in Taj Smith, Kory Sheets and company.
"I told my players before we went out there that we have a lot of people out there to put on a show for and that our opponents are hardwired for a level of speed and competition that will be tough to handle even if they aren't going as hard as they would in a CFL game and it wasn't their sport." says Payne who added. "The first thing my players mentioned was how fast they were, but it was a great experience and I thank the Roughriders for giving our students the opportunity."
YRHS guard Ryan Krochak summed up the experience saying, "I didn't expect them to be that good at basketball at first, but once you notice how good of athletes they are it made sense and it was a great experience that I won't forget."
For the Roughrider players, staying in Saskatchewan to share the moment of winning the Grey Cup has been very important to give back to the community.
"I played college football at Virginia Tech, and being in Saskatchewan you get the feeling of that hype you see in college football back home so it was special for me to stay here and experience that love from each community," said Macho Harris.
Taj Smith, who recently signed an extension with the Roughriders to avoid free agency echoed similar sentiments as Harris, saying he wanted to give back to the fans that helped him through a season of ups and downs.
"The Roughrider fans have supported me through everything, even when things have been tough and they helped me get to where I am today so I felt I had to stay up North and give back to share this with not just Regina, but the entire province."
When asked about expectations for 2014, Smith didn't hesitate in putting it on the record that he is expecting another Grey Cup in Regina. "We just want to keep getting better and keep improving, even if the bar is high from winning getting better is our goal every time we get together as a team," closed Smith.
