The JPII Collegiate senior girls basketball team. (Submitted photo/Bruce Yockey)

By Martin Martinson

High school athletics

Senior basketball tournaments cancelled this weekend

Jan 6, 2022 | 5:00 PM

It has been a tough start to 2022 for high school athletics as the senior basketball teams at both John Paul II Collegiate (JPII) and North Battleford Comprehensive High School (NBCHS) have had their initial tournaments of the new year cancelled this weekend due to the pandemic.

Both senior boys teams were scheduled for play in Moose Jaw while the senior girls teams were supposed to head to Prince Albert.

Head coach of the NBCHS Vikings senior girls, Kara Rigden said the cancelation was tough news to get for the group.

“The girls were pretty upset to hear the tournament was cancelled this weekend, and especially the Grade 12s,” she said. “We had another tournament cancelled in Saskatoon earlier this year, but we were able to attend John Paul’s tournament instead, and then also another at the end of January [yet to come], cancelled due to COVID.”

Head coach of the JPII Crusaders senior girls, Bruce Yockey said the news just came earlier in the day on Thursday.

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“The tournament in PA dropped to six teams [initially], then emailed me again that they’ve cancelled for the weekend,” Yockey said. “It’s tough, but there’s not much you can do. You have to go with what school division’s policies are and right now COVID seems to be highly contagious, so it’s hitting high school sports teams just like everything else right now it seems.”

Both of the local senior boys’ teams would have also been in action this weekend in Moose Jaw, though that tournament was cancelled just yesterday due to the pandemic as well.

NBCHS senior boys coach, Ryley Woiden said while the news of the cancelation was unfortunate, the team remains hopeful they will be able to return to play soon with some big games scheduled for later this month.

“It was a go for this weekend until yesterday at about 3 p.m. when we got the call, so that was tough,” he said. “But the 14^th and 15^th we’re off to Meadow Lake, and then the week after that we have a home game against Lloyd Comprehensive on the 20^th, which will be our first home action, so we’re still looking forward to that.”

Despite the cancelation of the senior tournaments this weekend, some optimism still remains for the junior basketball teams at both high schools. At the time of publishing, the NBCHS junior boys are still scheduled to play in Prince Albert while the JPII juniors will travel to Swift Current.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1