A tournament that is only three years old, the York City Classic has combined the former prestigious YRHS home tournament and Sacred Heart's home tournament into one city wide event that brings Saskatchewan's best 4A basketball to town every year after Semester One exams to heat up the road to Hoopla. The tournament also raises money for breast cancer research through a gate charge and "Shoot For a Cure" pink warm up shirts worn by the Saints and Raiders to support breast cancer research awareness and for all survivors and victims of breast cancer. This year an added twist is making its way into the third annual York City Classic as 3A teams enter the fold as some of the top programs from that level come to see where they stack up with the larger, city schools. Sacred Heart's recent drop to the 3A brought in Moosimin and Caronport as two of the best 3A schools in the province will be looking to put on a show in their first appearances in the York City Classic.
Sacred head coach Garrett Karcha is excited for this weekend despite some growing pains early on in the season with roster turnover seeing his top three scorers from a team that nearly upset eventual 4A champion North Battleford Composite in the provincial quarterfinals. "This is a special tournament because being from Yorkton and playing basketball in this city since the late nineties it gives us a chance to showcase our city as well as to grow the game in Yorkton so it is always a tournament we want to perform well in" said Karcha. Sacred will be looking to post players David Ojo, Brendon Welkington, and Carter MacKay to provide inside the paint offense while point guard Jacob Okeny has been constantly improving and could have a breakout tournament at the York City Classic.
Karcha says that despite their early struggles, they have been playing much better in exhibition games and practice and are eager to find out where they are at heading into the final stretch before provincial playoffs saying, "We went from losing to Melville in the opening weekend to beating them the last two times we have played and have installed some new things into our system that have been looking good in exhibition games and practice so now it is a matter of executing this weekend."
Two blocks down Gladstone, the Raiders are going through transition as well with the loss of a core that went to Hoopla last year, losing to Moose Jaw Central in the semifinal before settling for an admirable third place in the province by beating Meadow Lake. The Raiders lost in the final at the York City Classic last year, playing some of their best basketball of the season before barely losing to the Vikings of North Battleford in overtime in the finals, a three pointer by the Vikings at the end of regulation prevented the Raiders from taking their home tournament. Ranked #5 in the province and buoyed by star seniors in Daniel Mandziuk and Ben Redl the Raiders will be looking to advance out of a tough Friday night draw and challenge for the tournament crowd yet again on Saturday.
Group A will serve as this year's "Group of Death" as the Raiders will be in tough with Lumsden and the undefeated Swift Current Colts. Lumsden will be looking to upset the hosts in the tournament tip-off at noon Friday before taking on a rested Swift Current team at 3:10 in their round robin action. While barring an upset the marquee game of Friday night will be the final game of Group A at 6:10 as the undefeated Colts and the Raiders will do battle to see who advances to the semifinals. Swift Current's up tempo style and love for the three point shot will prove as a challenge for the Raiders as well as Ian Hayes' whose 21 points a game for Swift Current makes him a player to watch.
Raiders head coach Jason Payne says the Raiders' weekend will ultimately come down to what happens on the defensive side of the hardwood saying, "We also make defense our philosophy and if we work hard and do the things we want to do, we should have a good weekend." This will be the Raiders first test at some of the 4A's best and Payne feels that four provincial championship contenders are at the tournament in Central, Prince Albert St. Mary's, Swift Current and themselves.
In Group B the runners up in 3A and 4A provincials last year will do battle as the Moose Jaw Central Cyclones will take on the Moosimin Marauders at 6:30 (SHHS Gym) in the highlight game of this group. Estevan rounds out Group B, where Central serve as the odds on favorite to come out of the group into the semifinals. A young Moosimin team that finished fourth at Brandon's Neelin tournament last weekend will look to three point shooters in Austin Jones and Riley Sinclair to pull off an upset, but an 11-1 Central team that's only loss came at the hands of 5A Saskatoon program Walter Murray in the Centennial Charger Charity Classic in a 65-63 final will be tough to knock off in round robin play,
Group C is highlighted Prince Albert St. Mary's, a program that is always strong and led by one of the best coaches in the province in Dale Regel. Eight grade twelve players and two Saskatchewan provincial team members make this year's St. Mary's team as strong as ever and their 17-1 record makes them a tough draw for Caronport and Melville. An inexperienced MCS squad led by a new coach in Tom Schlamp rounds out the local tournament hopefuls in this year's York City Classic. A staple in the tournament, the Cobras are building for the future and despite for grade twelve captains Cole Wenet and Tanner Bokor, have a young team that will be looking to test the waters against two very strong basketball programs in Caronport and St. Mary's.
Finally Group D brings out the Saints, who are in a group with former 4A rivals in North Battleford and Prince Albert Carlton that will be tricky for the Saints to get out of. North Battleford has experienced a drop off since winning back to back provincial titles, giving the Saints a chance to start the tournament off with a win in their York City Classic opener at 1:40 p.m.
Prince Albert Carlton are the favorites in Group D as their 15-7 record is highlighted by a solid core of five senior players, one tournament title, and three second place finishes so far this season. Sacred came close to pulling off a Friday night upset of North Battleford at last year's tournament and will be looking to play spoiler in Friday night's final game at 8:10. The fast break offense that kept the Saints in so many tough games last season might be dead and gone, but don't count out a hardworking Sacred Heart team from at least making things interesting on Friday night in front of their home crowd fans at the Halo Dome.
Saturday will see the knockout round games with the C Side semifinals tipping off at 9:30 a.m., the B Side semifinals going at 11:10 a.m. and the tournament semifinals beginning at 12:50 p.m. with the championship game at 5:50 p.m. Another year of tight high school basketball competition on the road to Hoopla 2013 continues as the province's best head to Yorkton to put their name in the provincial championship discussion. One of the province's premier basketball tournaments tips off at noon Friday, and you won't want to miss it.
