(Submitted photo/Randy Emmerson)

By Nolan Kowal

Basketball wrap up

Carlton basketball coach reflects on Hoopla, season as a whole

Mar 26, 2024 | 5:13 PM

The Carlton Boys Basketball team finished off their season on a positive note Saturday despite Hoopla – the annual high basketball championships in Saskatchewa – being significantly dialed back this year due to the ongoing strike of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation.

The Carlton Crusaders attended the one-game championship event in Moose Jaw and finished up their season on a winning note, beating Lloydminster 91-76.

“It was incredible…the atmosphere that was there,” said Crusaders Head Coach Randy Emmerson, adding that 23 of the 24 scheduled games were played with only two teams not attending. “The gyms were hopping…they were exciting finals, overtime games that were played.”

“The atmosphere of course over the course of one day is just a small sample of what a Hoopla festival is typically, but the excitement was there, the opportunity for kids to play, for teams to actually have that finality and wrap to their season,” he continued.

Emmerson added that it was a bit of a rollercoaster when they learned that they would be able to compete in Moose Jaw if they chose to.

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“The rollercoaster of are we playing…no there’s nothing, what do you mean we have a chance to go down and compete, let’s do it,” he said. “Yeah there’s disappointment in how it ended, but I think that that’s not what we’re going to focus on.”

“It took probably less that five minutes for our team to realize, how can we pass this up? In the end it would be hard pressed to find any of the teams, any of the players who played on Saturday to consider it a disappointment at all. It was a thrill…it’s something that they will remember and cherish that they did get to play on the last day of the high school basketball season.”

Emmerson said it was a remarkable year overall for his squad.

“Our season was outstanding is how I’d like to think of it,” he said. We went into the year very young…we had one player returning from the team that lost in the Hoopla semi-final last year, and so there was a lot of uncertainty as to how we would develop.”

“There’s no doubt that we had a physically gifted team, we’ve got lots of talent. Being a new coach coming in, not really being sure how they would respond to me, not really sure how they would bond as a group. I can only say that by the end we had progressed…to the point where we could perform at the end in a way that we can be really proud of.”

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nolan.kowal@pattisonmedia.com