I'll remember this past Saturday afternoon for quite a long time.
As of this coming Thursday, I've been doing this journalism gig for 18 years, and so I've accumulated quite a substantial bank of memories and moments up here in the old noggin. And I've gotta say, what I watched in the gymnasium at Marion M. Graham Collegiate in Saskatoon on Saturday, March 22 was something that will definitely need some room to stay for a while.
On a day that was technically supposed to be the third day of spring, a white blanket of snow was falling down in Saskatoon as people arrived at the school to take in the 2A Boys Bronze medal final of the annual HOOPLA Provincial Basketball Championship.
Why was I there? Well, because Outlook's very own LCBI Bisons were competing in this game to decide one of the best in the province. I watched from home on Friday as the boys played in the Gold medal qualifying game against St. Brieux, and man, it was a nail-biter! Momentum swung back and forth like a swing set in a tornado, but just when it looked like the Bisons were headed to the Final, the Crusaders persevered and benefitted from, well, I'm just going to call it sheer luck because the loss was a tough one. Still, LCBI could be very proud, as the 73-71 loss meant that they took the #1 ranked team in the division to the absolute limit in a game that could have easily been won by either roster.
So then, Bronze medal final it was, as a boisterous contingent of LCBI faithful were busy making noise in the stands as the boys took it to the Norquay Knights.
And they did it.
They won the game.
They captured the Bronze medal.
Hugs were had, tears flowed, and high-fives were bountiful as the boys reveled in the glory, proud of their accomplishment. As well they should have been, as the skills and teamwork I saw on that court simply deserved to be rewarded. I snapped what felt like a thousand photos, I talked to the Bisons coach, and I just gazed at everything that I was surrounded by in that gym.
The hoopla of HOOPLA, you could say.
It reminded me of being in the Jim Kook Rec Plex three years ago in March of 2022 as the Outlook Ice Hawks were in the midst of a provincial game series against the Kindersley Klippers to decide the winners of the Senior 'B' Championship.
I had first driven over to Kindersley to take in the action because a second win in Game Two would've meant that the Hawks would take the title on the Klippers' home ice, but instead, the hosting team took the win and forced Game Three, which went down on Monday night, March 28 in front of a massive, filled-to-absolute-capacity crowd at the Rec Plex.
In that fierce battle, I remember it being kind of funny because there were times when the crowd got so quiet that you could probably hear a pin drop on the ice. That's the thing about provincials; it amps up the drama, cranks up the nerves, and it makes it seem like as if nothing else in the known world matters at that moment in time.
The end result was a 3-1 win for the Ice Hawks, who captured the Provincial Senior 'B' Championship.
The rink became a madhouse maybe 1.3 seconds after the final buzzer had sounded that night. Again, hugs were had, tears were shed, and everyone was high-fiving as Outlook had proved themselves to be one of the best in the province on that night. I took team photos, fan photos, and probably snapped photos with about a dozen other peoples' cameras simply because it was a moment in time that everyone wanted to capture and remember.
And that's the thing, isn't it? Trophies, banners, and things like gold, silver and bronze medals are great and all, and they signify a team's hard work, dedication and perseverance, but at the end of the day, it's just hardware. Those trophies will sit on a glass-encased shelf to be looked at randomly by passersby, those banners will be stuck hanging on a wall to be looked at and then quickly forgotten about, and those medals will one day wind up in a storage box in someone's basement.
It's not necessarily about what a team wins as far as material accomplishments and rankings on paper. It's about the memories that are made along the journey; the dramatic quarter-finals, the tension-filled semi-finals, and the absolutely stress-inducing finals. But more than that, it's about the comradery enjoyed by teammates, the memorable moments that we spectators don't see behind closed doors, and the relationships and friendships that are forged along the way. Strangers become friends and friends become family.
I watched as parents cried and hugged their boys tight on Saturday in that gymnasium, proud of their accomplishments and what they were able to achieve as a team. THAT'S what matters in the end; moments in time that will be remembered for ten, twenty HOOPLAs from now.
Medals and trophies are awesome, but it's the memories made that will truly last forever.
Congratulations, LCBI. Remember this moment in time.
For this week, that's been the Ruttle Report.
