St. Mary senior Cassidy Schrader goes up for the shot while contested against Carlton in the regional semifinal on Saturday afternoon. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

growing concern

Local high school basketball player, coaches react to possible HOOPLA cancellation following regionals

Mar 17, 2024 | 3:59 PM

With the Sask. High Schools Athletic Association (SHSAA) closing out their regional basketball tournaments across the province this past weekend, all eyes are now on next weekend as the HOOPLA Provincial Basketball tournaments are set to get underway, signifying the end of the season.

However, the season could already be over as the HOOPLA tournaments are at risk of being cancelled because of the ongoing strikes by the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF), who remain at a bargaining stalemate with the Saskatchewan government over a new contract.

HOOPLA is the biggest weekend for high school basketball in the province where the best of the best come together to determine a provincial champion in five divisions in both boys and girls tournaments.

For Prince Albert’s Carlton and St. Mary High Schools, they compete in the 5A division with their HOOPLA tournament set to be held in Moose Jaw.

St. Mary’s girls team managed to qualify for HOOPLA following a second-place finish at Regionals on home court in Prince Albert on Saturday. One of their grade 12 players, guard Cassidy Schrader shared her thoughts about her senior season potentially being cut short, calling it an unfortunate situation.

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“It’ll be really upsetting if it is cancelled,” she said. “But I think that this past weekend, even if [HOOPLA] does get cancelled, we left everything out on the court and we played as a team so it’s a good way to end.”

Additionally, St. Mary’s Head Coach Dwayne Gareau also voiced his concerns on the likely cancellation, saying the fate is out of their control.

“I think there’s a middle ground that can be found between both parties,” he explained. “Get back to the bargaining table and hopefully reach some sort of level of… moving forward with this and not having sanctions and whatnot. I just hope we can find that middle ground sooner than later. We can only control what we can control, that’s what I’ve been talking to the team about. We don’t know what’s going to happen, we don’t know what level of sanctions will come down our way, we’ll get that information like everybody. Job one, we’re at HOOPLA. Job two, hopefully we can get a couple practices in and we’re off to HOOPLA next weekend.”

St. Mary dropped the 5A Girls Regional Finals to #1 ranked Swift Current 54-45, while Carlton just missed punching their ticket to HOOPLA with a 44-34 loss to North Battleford Comp. in the third-place game. Only the top three teams in regionals qualify for the provincial tournament.

Despite failing to qualify for HOOPLA, Carlton’s girls Head Coach Kelsey Pearson said it was important for her team to leave it all on the court in the potential final weekend.

“We don’t know a lot with what’s going on,” she said. “If the government doesn’t come forward, then unfortunately not only HOOPLA but a lot of things get cancelled for kids. So [it was] really important for the girls to play this weekend like it [was] their last and to just be thankful that they get this last weekend together as a team.”

In the Boys Regional tournament in Lloydminster, North Battleford Comp. came out victors in the gold medal game defeating #1 Carlton, 92-85. Meanwhile, St. Mary dropped their third-place game against the host Lloydminster 71-66 as they will miss out on Provincials this season.

A complete bracket for both the Boys and Girls tournaments can be found by clicking here.

The 5A Boys and Girls HOOPLA tournaments will be played out of A.E. Peacock Collegiate and Vanier Collegiate in Moose Jaw.

At the time of this article’s publication, no official announcement has been made regarding HOOPLA’s cancellation.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com