Thunder Bay is the basketball capital of Northwestern Ontario this weekend.
Twenty-eight teams have gathered in the city for the 16th annual Falcon Invitational Tournament, hosted by the Superior Secondary Schools Athletic Association’s St. Ignatius Falcons, the senior boys defending champions.
St. Ignatius coach Matt Erdman said the tournament is a good test for his team, who have started the season 8-2 and easily worked over the Hammarskjold Vikings in Friday’s Falcons Invitational opener.
It’s also an excellent chance to showcase players and teams from throughout the region.
“It’s great to have a tournament because it promotes basketball throughout the city. We’re able to bring in the younger Thunder Bay Blaze team. And we’re also able to bring in teams from Northwestern Ontario, to get them a little more exposure and a little more experience,” Erdman said.
For Erdman, it’s a chance to see how his team reacts to opponents they might not see on a regular basis, while finding some valuable minutes for both his veteran starters and less experienced bench.
“We have some older guys, but we also have some younger guys, so we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. But we still want to keep the main focus of winning every game and winning every practice,” he said.
“A lot of our younger guys are playing a lot of minutes, so game minutes are quality minutes for them. I’d like to see how we’ve improved from our Christmas tournament in Winnipeg over the break and hopefully see some of those signs.”
Tournament organizer Dino Buset, an assistant coach with the Falcons and co-convener of the tournament, said over the years the tournament has made a name for itself across the North.
That doesn’t make it any easier to put together, he said.
“It definitely takes a bit of time. We’re fortunate we have tons of help with it, so as a group we tend to manage,” Buset said.
“We have a lot of considerations to make when we set up the draws, but we typically rank the teams and then from there just try to balance it from there.”
The junior and senior teams from Timmins’ O’Gorman High School won last year’s titles and both teams are back to defend their tournament crowns in 2016.
The junior championship game is slated for 7 p.m. on Saturday at St. Ignatius, with the senior title game to follow.
A link to the draws can be found here.
