Skip to content

Trojans hosting southern hoops teams for three-day tournament

High school basketball fans will have a rare opportunity to watch the R.D. Parker Collegiate Trojans take on teams from the province’s south in the South Comes North varsity basketball tournament which begins Jan. 15 and runs until Saturday evening.
trojans basketball
R.D. Parker Collegiate will host five girls’ teams and three boys’ teams for the varsity basketball South Comes North tournament Jan. 15-17.

High school basketball fans will have a rare opportunity to watch the R.D. Parker Collegiate Trojans take on teams from the province’s south in the South Comes North varsity basketball tournament which begins Jan. 15 and runs until Saturday evening.

Six girls’ teams and four boys’ teams will be competing in the tournament, including the RDPC squads and their northern rivals Hapnot Collegiate Institute from Flin Flon. Southern teams making the trip to Thompson include Portage Collegiate and Grant Park High School in the boys’ division, and Portage Collegiate, Stonewall Collegiate, Gray Academy and Elmwood High School in the girls’ competition.

“We have a nice mixture of AAA and AAAA teams to add variety for the northern teams,” says RDPC varsity girls’ team coach Sara Gillis. “There should be some exciting ball games in the mix.”

The boys’ tournament kicks off at 6:45 on Thursday when the Trojans take on Portage Collegiate. RDPC will play again on Friday at 12:15 p.m. against Grant Park High School and conclude the round-robin later that afternoon when they face Hapnot at 5:30 p.m. The boys’ first playoff round will be played Saturday at 10 a.m., the third-place game at 1:30 p.m and the boys’ championship at 3:15 p.m.

The girls’ competition schedule includes three exhibition games on Thursday, one of which will feature RDPC versus Portage Collegiate at 5 p.m. The Trojan girls open the tournament for real on Friday at 10:30 a.m. against Stonewall, with their second game against Gray Academy Friday evening at 7:15 p.m.

The girls’ playoffs begin on Saturday at 11:45 a.m. The fifth-place game is at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, the third-place game at 3:15 p.m. and the girls’ final will be at 5 p.m. with the awards presentation scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

The tournament also includes a skills competition on Friday at 2 p.m. and a social event for the participants when play wraps up on Friday.

Makign the tournament an all-around experience is a must to attract southern teams, Gillis says.

“Our goal was to bring teams from the south to play competitive basketball here at R.D. Parker Collegiate, so that our teams could compete on their home court in front of their school, friends and families,” she said. “Our teams always have to travel to compete as southern teams will not come north to compete with us because they can go next door to the next high school at very little expense. In order to attract teams, we have had to make things very attractive and feasible for the teams. We are providing affordable bus travel, offering five games, quality refereeing (including some qualified recruits from the south), having a skills competition, a team social event, tours, draws, and awards for tournament placement, all stars, MVPs and sportsmanship.”

The tournament wouldn’t be possible without assistance from many sponsors.

“We have got tremendous support from the community for this tournament,” Gillis said. “We have many volunteers from our school and community, including involvement of school groups such as student council, Youth Aboriginal Council, and our newly formed Athletic Council.”

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks