(Submitted photo/Dwayne Gareau)

By Nolan Kowal

Missing out

‘Bit of a gut punch’: St. Mary girl’s basketball coach reacts to Hoopla cancellation

Mar 21, 2024 | 4:00 PM

His team won’t be competing at Hoopla, along with dozens of other basketball teams in Saskatchewan.

But Dwayne Gareau, the head coach of the St. Mary Marauders girl’s basketball team, is still focusing on the positives despite a disappointing end to the province’s hardcourt season after the annual provincial basketball championships were cancelled Wednesday due to the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation strike.

“Bit of a gut punch for the team,” said Gareau, who also serves as the head principal at St. Mary High School. “We’ve been talking to the team about controlling the controllables, so I think with that mindset it has allowed us to absorb this in a way that although it’s disappointing and a bit of a gut shot to us, we understand that there are some things that are outside of our control and there are some things that we can control.”

“So we’ve been using the whole mantra all year that when we get an opportunity to get together and play and train together that we enjoy those opportunities because we never know when that may be the last opportunity.”

Gareau said he had five Grade 12 players on this year’s team.

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“We feel for the whole team because we’re all in it together,” he said. “Any time you have your last moment with a team, it’s the last time those individuals will ever be together,” adding that most of his Grade 12 players got to experience Hoopla in past seasons.

Gareau added that he went through a similar experience when the pandemic forced cancellations around the sporting world.

Despite this year’s cancellation, the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association is still inviting every team that qualified to come to Moose Jaw to play in a one game championship this Saturday, as there are no sanctions in place on that day. But Gareau said his team has decided not to go.

“The overwhelming response from our team was they weren’t interested in attending this year’s event due to a number of things…the game itself, what it would have been, not having an opportunity to play for a medal or championship,” said Gareau, adding that the team they would have played had similar feelings.

The Marauders senior girl’s team finished with a record of 20-7 in what Gareau is calling a very successful season.

“We had an extremely successful season, we had some fun, we won some medals along the way, so it was a very good season,” he said. “It came down to an end where it was out of our control, but there was definitely more highs than lows this season.”

Gareau added that the team will still have one final get together in the coming days.

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nolan.kowal@pattisonmedia.com