The annual Summerland Secondary School Alumni Basketball Tournament took place last Saturday and it was once again well attended as fans took in some excellent basketball action.
The tournament is hosted by the high school’s senior basketball teams and includes grad teams from 2014 back to 1981.
The oldest grad this year was 1981 grad Joe Wackerbauer, who had the opportunity of guarding his son Nic in the opening game.
Summerland Secondary School teacher Tom Brickenden (grad 1981) also had the chance to guard his son Landon for a few minutes.
Tournament directors Don Walker and Blair Haddrell reported an excellent turn out this year, with some new faces that hadn’t played in quite a few years.
The purpose of the alumni tournament is to gather past and present basketball players from the high school, have some spirited competition, catch up with old friends, and celebrate high school basketball.
The tournament opened with the present senior boys Rockets taking on the fan favourite Old Guys team.
Aided by 6’8” Josh Hood, the old grads fought off fatigue and a spirited high school team to defeat the Rockets 66-55.
The Old Guys proved just too tall and too large for the younger Rockets.
High-flying Jeff Dolan and towering Josh Hood led the way scoring 16 points each for the victors.
The Rockets were led by Landon Brickenden and Abhi Lehki with 17 points and 12 points respectively.
The second game of the tournament pitted the legendary Red team taking on the Blue team in their annual battle.
This game is consistently one of the best of the tournament and the two teams did not disappoint the many fans in attendance.
In the end, the Red team defeated the Blue team by a score of 63-62.
The teams are made up of players from 2004 to 2010 and 2011 to 2014.
Scoring leaders for the Red team were Trevor Parkinson with 15 points, Jordan Stathers with 14 points and Harish Anand with 13 points.
Shaun McGaw with 12 points, Drayden Power with 11 points and Eric Buddingh with 10 points led the scoring for the Blue team.
This game was amazing from start to finish and provided many highlight moments.
The third game of the tournament pitted the female grads against the present senior girls Rockets team, who were helped by the play of their present coach Jenny Mitchell and teacher Tama Corday, both grads of the high school.
Despite a lack of substitutes, the two teams battled right to the final buzzer and the older grads defeated the Rockets by a score of 54-43.
The grads were led by the scoring touch of Lisa Isaak with 18 points and Melissa Stathers with 10 points.
The Old Gals were led by the incredible passing and playmaking of present high school teacher Tama Corday.
Haven Dufty led the Rockets scoring with 13 points.
In the consolation final of the boys side of the draw, the Blue team grads took on the boys Rockets, and in the end the grads proved to be just too big and too tall and they defeated the Rockets by a score of 78-57.
Drayden Power and Eric Buddingh were again the high scorers for the third place Blue team with 15 and 13 points respectively.
The Rockets’ attack was led by the great three-point shooting performance of Gurek Rathore, who drained six three-pointers for 18 points.
Landon Brickenden also provided countless rebounds and contributed 15 points to the team total.
The tournament final for the boys draw saw a repeat of the match up of the previous two years, with the Red team taking on the tired and stiff Old Grads.
Guest coach Howard Wiens helped guide the Old Guys and provide much needed inspiration.
The game was dominated in the first half by the Red team with their sharp shooting and went in to half time with a 42-35 lead.
In the second half, the Old Guys slowly crept back in to the game. Led by the rebounding and scoring of Josh Hood, the grads clawed back to a lead of 62-60.
With just seconds to go, the Red team had last possession of the ball and threw up the potentially winning three point shot, only to narrowly miss and give the Old Grads the victory.