Carlton High School students earned first place on Wednesday at the Sask Polytech and Saskatchewan Rush Business Showdown, a high school competition that challenged students to create fresh marketing ideas for one of the province’s biggest sports teams.
Before the awards, Sask Polytech business program heads Shannon Pettem and Crystal Grovestine gave a short presentation introducing the school’s business diploma options and shared examples of graduates who built successful careers through applied learning.
The event brought together more than 200 students from across Saskatchewan to the Prince Albert campus cafeteria, where teams were given a business case early in the day and just two hours to prepare a presentation. Teams then faced a panel of judges made up of Sask Polytech faculty and representatives from Sask Entertainment Group.
“It’s really impressive,” said Josh Glew, a marketing instructor at SaskPolytech. “The case is designed to be hands-on. We judge students on the ideas they generate and how well they can express them, not on business experience or formal analysis.”
Glew said this was the first time the northern campus hosted the showdown, which has previously been held in Moose Jaw. He said holding one in Prince Albert gave northern schools greater access to the program.
It’s valuable for us as a recruitment effort,” he added, “but it’s also giving students something practical, a real business problem where they can see how their work might actually be used.”
Tyler Wawryk, vice-president of business operations with Sask Entertainment Group, speaks to students about careers in the sports and entertainment industry during Wednesday’s Business Showdown event at Sask Polytech’s Prince Albert campus.
Tyler Wawryk, vice-president of business operations with Sask Entertainment Group, said the Saskatchewan Rush partnered with Sask Polytech to connect students with opportunities in the sports and entertainment industry.
“The students got the case this morning and had two hours to put it together,” Wawryk said. “We wanted to see how Gen Z engages with sports and how they think about entertainment and brands. Some of their ideas were so sharp that I’m taking them back to my team.”
Wawryk, who has worked in sports for more than a decade, said he hopes students left the event with a better understanding of how many career options exist in Saskatchewan’s sports sector.
“It’s a ton of fun. I didn’t know this was even an option when I was in high school. Hopefully they come away knowing that this is a field they can build a career in.”
The winning Carlton team of Reign Blanchard, Myla Masko, Molly Paulsen, and Brooklyn Aiken designed a concept for a Saskatchewan Rush app aimed at engaging teenagers through themed nights and local business tie-ins.
“I’m in sports myself, so I just looked at what other teams do and what they don’t have,” said Blanchard. “We wanted to make it fun and connect with people our age.”
Their teammate Paulsen said teamwork was key.
“We all worked together, each with a small part, and it came together. None of us expected to win, so it’s pretty cool.”
Masko added that seeing the judges’ reaction made the hard work worth it.
“It felt really good to see they liked what we came up with. It made us realize we can actually do something like this.”
Second place went to Bethlehem School, followed by Holy Cross 2 in third and Holy Cross 1 in fourth.
