The 72nd Luther Invitational Tournament gets underway

One of the longest-running high school basketball tournaments in Canada is once again underway.

The Luther Invitational Tournament is back for the 72nd edition of the event, which dates all the way back to 1953.

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Isaac Idowu is a senior on the Luther Lions basketball team and he said it’s exciting to get a chance to take to the court.

“I’m excited for the atmosphere and the crowd and getting to play in front of everyone,” Idowu said. “There’s a certain pride to (playing in the tournament as a Lion). You come out and the whole school is watching the first game.”

While he was in the crowd his first couple years at Luther College High School, he remembers what it was like when he first played in a LIT game last year.

“In Grade 11, I was a bit scared. It was a bit overwhelming with the crowd and the cheering. I think this year I will be acclimated to it,” Idowu said.

The tournament features teams not just from Regina, from Saskatoon and other provinces as well. Idowu said it’s a great experience to play against those other teams.

“It’s really fun because it’s better competition so that’s the good thing about it,” Idowu said.

LIT is also a unique tournament in that the students do a lot of the organizing and jobs to make it a reality. Grade 12 student Sheldon Khang is on the media committee for the tournament and said they started to get everything planned in November.

“We have multiple jobs — we get the sponsorships for the tournament, we organize the press conference and do the social media,” Khang said. “We just kind of expose the event to the public.

“LIT is really special about that because it’s a student-run tournament. We have a lot of pride in running the tournament, especially since it’s one of the longest-running tournaments in Western Canada. There are so many respective committees that students come together to put their best efforts in. We have been working really hard since November and I’m just really excited to see how that goes this weekend.”

Khang said seeing the tournament get underway is overwhelming with the amount of excitement there is in the school.

“It’s huge. It’s great to see all these teams from all over Western Canada just come together to the school I’m attending. That’s just a special experience for us. I’m sure all of the Luther students agree LIT is a special and memorable moment for them,” Khang said.

This year’s tournament is also honouring the 2006 Luther Lions boys team. They were the last boys Luther team to win the tournament. The finals take place on Saturday.