Tuesday’s food bank games between the Carlton and St. Mary’s basketball teams have been postponed. An illness among one of the teams is the cause, but a rescheduled date has already been scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 20.
While the game isn’t happening before the Christmas season this year, it will still be played on a date where cold weather will be in full force. Dwayne Gareau, the coach of the St. Mary senior A girls team, explained why this annual game is important for the entire community.
“Dale Regel used to do it for years and years on the boys side of basketball,” Gareau said. “We decided a few years ago to make it an event with the girls and boys games. These are great ways to promote basketball in the city, and we’re doing it for a good cause. To get in you have to drop off a non perishable food item that we donate to the food bank.
“It’s become an annual thing, and we try to do it in December, but we had to postpone it this year because a couple of the players weren’t feeling well so it wasn’t the best week to have it. It’ll still be the food bank game in January, and we’ll still be getting food items, because I know they need it throughout the course of the winter.”
The last time the boys and girls tipped off in the food bank game was in 2019. The Carlton girls beat the Marauders girls by a 71-35 score, while the St. Mary boys took down the Crusader boys 80-69.
Along with the boxes on boxes of food donated in the 2019 games, the teams were also able to raise $285 in cash donations for the Prince Albert food bank.
Both girls’ teams have this weekend off, so their next games will be at St. Mary’s home tournament after the Christmas school break. It’s the Kelly Smith Big 12 tournament, with 12 teams competing for gold. Jan. 6 is the start date, with the Marauders playing against Lake Lenore at 5pm, while the Crusaders play against Estevan in the late game on Thursday night at 8pm. The gold medal game will be held on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 7:30pm.
Meanwhile the Carlton and St. Mary senior A boys will be in North Battleford this weekend in their last tournament before the break.
@kyle_kosowan•sports@paherald.sk.ca
