UPDATE: The tournament has been cancelled due to weather and travel conditions
Ucluelet Secondary’s gym will be packed with energy this weekend as the West Coast’s Basketball on the Edge tournament bounces back into action.
The annual local tournament was launched in 2014, but was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic and is now ready to make its triumphant return.
Tournament director Jason Sam told the Westerly News that five teams will be competing over the Friday and Saturday schedule with Kyuqouot, Queen Margaret’s School and Brooks Secondary School travelling to the West Coast.
The opening tip off is set for Friday, Jan. 19, at noon with an all-home-court matchup between Ucluelet’s senior and junior boys teams.
Sam said pairing the two home teams in the tournament’s opener will accommodate wiggle room for the teams’ travel times and added that the junior team is up for the challenge.
“We’re bursting at the seams with basketball players coming up in Grades 6, 7, 8 and 9. We’ve got a big junior team so we’re putting our junior team in to give them more game play and more experience.”
A skills competition is set for 7 p.m. Friday.
Sam said the tournament filled up with eight teams in its heyday with growing waiting lists of others wanting to participate.
“Everybody loves coming to Ucluelet and Tofino during the winter storm season,” he said, adding he hopes the event’s return will lead to the strong annual event’s permanent return.
He added hosting local sports tournaments allows West Coast’s student athletes to play in front of their home communities.
“Every one of our teams has to travel to compete at a higher level, so when we can bring a tournament to Ucluelet it makes it so that the parents and extended family can come watch their children and youth compete, which is super awesome for the kids as well as for the parents and the families. To bring a quality tournament back to Ucluelet is important for sure,” he said, adding the student athletes get revved up to perform in front of their home crowds.
“They definitely play a little bit harder and maybe a little bit different. It gives them something to be proud of about something they’ve worked for. They work hard to train and to get better and then they get to show it off.”
He said the senior boys team is hoping to make the provincials this year and will rely on the community’s support to help get them there.
“I think they’re going to have a really good year and they’re going to go far. I’m hoping they make provincials,” he said.
He hopes to see large crowds cheering the teams on throughout the weekend.
“It’s a beautiful, fun, healthy thing to go and watch. They’re our youth. They’re the future us,” he said.
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