The NBCHS Vikings senior boys basketball team. (Submitted photo/Ryley Woiden)

By Martin Martinson

Home gym hoops

Vikings senior boys to host home tournament this weekend

Mar 2, 2023 | 5:00 AM

The gymnasium will be alive and rocking this weekend at North Battleford Comprehensive High School, when the senior boys basketball team hosts their annual home tournament.

Head coach of the Vikings senior boys, Ryley Woiden said it’s an event the team always looks forward to, and especially this year, as they enter play having won eight of their last 10 overall.

“The boys are really excited, and we’ve had a really strong year with our guys,” Woiden said. “We have a really young group with a lot of Grade 10s and Grade 11s on the team this year, but we’ve managed to get ourselves to a 17-11 record this year, and this is kind of our last kick at the can before the regional tournament.”

Despite their young team, with just a pair of Grade 12s on the roster, the Vikings have proven themselves as a tough team to handle at tournaments across the province the season.

NBCHS won a silver medal across town at John Paul II Collegiate, and ‘B-side’ title in Saskatoon, before most recently adding another podium finish in their last tournament action prior to the February break, a bronze medal showing in Moose Jaw.

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Woiden said the key to the team’s success comes from their hustle, and ability to push the pace and play an up-tempo game.

“We are really a run-and-gun team,” he said. “We have incredible athleticism, and we really play with a lot of pace and high-pressure defense all game long. We also have really strong guard play, so we’ve got some good shooters and guys that can attack from the outside, but playing fast is our identity.”

This weekend’s home tournament will serve as the team’s final tune-up ahead of regionals at Moose Jaw’s Albert E. Peacock Collegiate, Mar. 17-18.

The Vikings senior boys will play their first game of the home tournament Friday afternoon at 1 p.m., against John Paul II Collegiate in an all-local showdown. The team will then face Lloyd Comprehensive, who beat them last time, in a game Woiden called a good test early..

“That’s one of the games we have penciled in as a bit of a revenge match,” he said. “We’d really like to beat Lloyd Comp to go ahead of them in the standings heading into regionals.”

Games will run from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, then continue from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1