Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School hosting 2024 ASAA 4A Boys/Girls Basketball Provincial Championships

Schow says it was important for him to be at the event’s opening to show the athletes that the province supports them in their athletic endeavours.

“As the minister of sport, I have the ability to help get more kids playing sports and recreating and nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. And you show you care by showing up,” he explains. “It was such an honour and a privilege for me to be here today with these incredible athletes. There’s 32 teams here who are going to go and battle it out and there’s going to be one champion on the men’s side and one on the women’s side but they’re all going to get the experience of a lifetime the next couple of days.”

Schow says he hopes that experience will teach the athletes how to deal with stress, leadership, teamwork, and friendships they’ll have for the rest of their lives.

“You get a lot of that through playing sports, so seeing these athletes who’ve dedicated so much time to basketball for the whole season, it’s all come down to this,” he exclaims. “They get to test their mettle against the other best teams in the province and we’ll see how it goes for them but its’ great to see so many high caliber athletes in the same room.”

A former basketball player himself in his younger days, Schow admits he misses events like this.

“I miss it so much. But again, it’s such a privilege to be part of it. You get to live this experience vicariously through the athletes and hear them cheering and watch them filing into the room here. Every single one of them, you can see the look on their faces, they are ready to go, they are ready to complete and ready to try and win a banner. I love it.”

(rdnewsNOW/Sheldon Spackman)

Chris Good, Principal, Lindsay Thurber High School, says the 4A Basketball Provincial Championships feature 16 boys teams and 16 girls teams.

“We’re really excited to be hosting them. It’s obviously a major event. I think it’s the biggest event on the Alberta Schools Athletic Association calendar, so we’re really just proud and happy to be hosting everyone in Red Deer and specifically, Lindsay Thurber,” says Good.

Good notes, the girls gold medal game will take place on Saturday, March 16, at 5:00 p.m., with the boys gold medal game to follow at 7:00 p.m.

With the Thurber Boys and Girls teams competing as well of course, Good says it’s exciting times for the school’s basketball teams.

“We’re really excited for our kids to get to play at home in our own gym and hopefully that will give us an advantage but looking forward to some great games,” adds Good. “Definitely a lot of great players in the tournament, so it should be some great competition.”

Good points out, however, an event of this magnitude takes a lot of planning and effort on the part of many volunteers.

“We’ve got an organizing committee that’s been working really hard for over a year to put this together,” explains Good. “We’ve got 180 students from our school who are volunteering in various capacities – everything from score keeping to being a host for some of the teams.”

“Obviously our staff is really involved,” continues Good. “It’s a big event and we did get some help too from Central Sport, they’ve sent us some volunteers, which is really great. So it’s just a great weekend, we’re looking forward to some fun and if you’re a sports fan, this is high level competition and some great games to watch, so come on out and support a team!”

Click here for the schedule and results.

—

Download the rdnewsNOW mobile app on Google Play and the Apple App Store for all the latest updates on this and other stories.

by Sheldon Spackman

Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School hosting 2024 ASAA 4A Boys/Girls Basketball Provincial Championships

What's Trending