Moose Jaw ready for second shot at welcoming province for HOOPLA

Saskatchewan teams have been eagerly lacing up for the annual HOOPLA basketball tournament, hosted this year in Moose Jaw.

Central Collegiate Institute student, Addison Simpson, is no stranger to HOOPLA, having competed in three Saskatchewan high school basketball championships before.

While it’s a tournament the Grade 12 student has always eagerly anticipated at the beginning of each basketball season, this year’s tournament is pulling on her heartstrings a little bit more.

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“It’s definitely added a lot of different emotions to it,” Simpson said, referring to this tournament being the last of her high school career.

“I really want my team to perform to the best of our abilities. I give a lot of speeches before games about how important it is, especially for us as Grade 12s, to be able to have good games this weekend.”

Simpson and the rest of her Cyclones teammates are ready to take on the mantle of hometown heroes in Moose Jaw this week for HOOPLA 2026, which gets underway on Thursday night.

Central Collegiate will be the lone local school on the floor in Moose Jaw this week, with the Cyclones qualifying both their boys and girls teams in the 4A division.

Earning the fourth seed in the 4A girls bracket after a 78-57 victory over Regina’s Luther College at regional last weekend, Simpson and the Cyclones will battle the Carpenter High School Spartans out of Meadow Lake in their opening game Friday afternoon.

“It’s been the back of all of our heads,” Simpson said.

“At the beginning of the year we set goals and we said that HOOPLA was our biggest goal this year, especially because it is in Moose Jaw. The opportunity to play in front of all our family and friends would be huge.”

Planning and preparation for the largest basketball gathering in the province has been underway for over a year according to tournament commissioner Roger Morgan with 48 teams slated to take part.

That anticipation has been growing in the community leading up to tip-off on Thursday, from the local high schools outwards.

“The business community has supported us,” Morgan said. “They’ve brought in extra staff into the restaurant, there’s not a hotel room to be found within 50 kilometres of Moose Jaw. It’s an entire city that’s gearing up for the championship.”

Moose Jaw will host HOOPLA for the second time in three years, though this year’s tournament is expected to go a lot smoother than in 2024.

Job action by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation amid a contract dispute with the provincial government resulted in the cancellation of the full tournament, instead teams were invited for a one-day smaller provincial championship.

Morgan said the disappointment of 2024 has given way to jubilation for organizers, finally getting a chance at putting on the tournament they wanted to from the beginning.

“This year the excitement is real,” Morgan said. “There’s no nervousness, there’s just, I guess, unbridled enthusiasm. We’re relaxed going in, instead of the pressure we had last time not knowing what was happening.”

Spartans hitting the highway

Dozens of high schools from across Saskatchewan are descending on Moose Jaw for HOOPLA 2026, though no team will be travelling a further distance to get there than the Spartans out of Meadow Lake.

A road trip of 521 kilometres separates the two communities – a drive of over 10 hours, round trip – to bus the team down to southern Saskatchewan.

Carpenter High School head coach, Kendra Paramchuk, isn’t worried about the extra travel, however, noting the team has already made two trips down to Moose Jaw this season alone.

“I think we benefit as much as it’s a disadvantage,” Paramchuk said.

“The girls get a lot of time together driving down the road, those late nights keeping each other awake as we’re rolling into town later than other teams. I think it kind of brings the team together.”

The Spartans are coming off a 71-30 victory over ninth-seeded L.P. Miller Comprehensive from Nipawin to advance to HOOPLA, earning their division’s top seed in the process.

Grade 11 post, Jasmine Dubray, has seen the team overcome long nights on the bus to become one of the top medal threats out of the 4A girls division.

“We have more of a connection out there than I feel most teams do,” Dubray said. “We’re all friends and it just works together because we don’t get mad or upset at each other.”

Setting for a silver medal last year at HOOPLA in Saskatoon, the Spartans are aiming to replicate their provincial gold medal from 2024, which was won in Moose Jaw, as well, on the one-day playoff.

“The last couple of years they’ve had the privilege of attending, medalling and then winning it in 2024,” Paramchuk said. “I think once you get a taste of what it’s like, you always want to get back.”

5A heavyweights begin chase for gold

Competition in the 5A boys and girls divisions get underway on Thursday night in Moose Jaw, with eight schools in each bracket beginning their push for provincial titles.

On the 5A boys side, the Holy Cross Crusaders enter as the number one seed after defeating the Walter Murray Collegiate Marauders 94-55 in the Saskatoon city championships last Friday.

Dominating from the second half on, the Crusaders captured Saskatoon glory for the first time since 2023 with the win.

“We were able to win (city championships) this year, which was really cool, especially after a tough loss last year,” said Crusaders head coach, Josh Rutten. “Our energy is high, our focus has been pretty good this week. We’re really just trying to now showcase our talents against the best teams in the province, not just Saskatoon.”

The Crusaders will match up against North Battleford Comprehensive High School in their first game on Thursday, entering as defending HOOPLA champions after beating Walter Murray 93-91 in last year’s provincial final.

As for the Marauders, they are the 5A boys tournament’s third seed after their city championship loss and will battle the Sheldon-Williams Collegiate Spartans from Regina in their opener.

“We need to play 40 minutes,” said Marauders head coach Scott Hawley. “We can’t play half a game and our guys know that. They were disappointed with (Friday’s) result and I think just the way we played. We framed it in the sense that we do have another chance at redemption here.”

Other games in the 5A boys tournament on Thursday include Prince Albert’s Carlton Comprehensive battling the LeBoldus Golden Suns from Regina, as well as Regina’s Miller Comprehensive facing Prince Albert’s St. Mary High.

The Golden Suns are the favourites in the 5A girls tournament, meanwhile, with LeBoldus looking to capture a third consecutive HOOPLA championship after a dominant 84-33 victory over Miller Comprehensive in the Regina city championship.

Undefeated in provincial play over the last two years, LeBoldus will lean on Grade 12 star, Hayden Kot, who is wrapping up her high school career with a shot at gold alongside her head coach father, Garrett Kot.

“It will be sad that it will be my last time playing basketball in this uniform and for my dad,” Hayden said.

“I think it kind of goes for everybody. We’ve all worked so hard for this moment. This was our end goal at the start of the season, winning another provincial championship.”

LeBoldus takes to the floor against Estevan Comprehensive High School to open their tournament Thursday, while the Saskatoon-champion Walter Murray Marauders will match up against Carleton out of Prince Albert as the number two seed.

The Marauders captured a third-straight Saskatoon city title on Friday with an 82-67 victory against Holy Cross, led by a 42-point performance from Grade 11 standout, Ryan Deutscher.

In Moose Jaw, however, the Marauders will be without their biggest weapon as Deutscher has left the team to participate in Canada’s national U18 women’s selection camp in St. Catherines, Ontario.

“We definitely are going to have to make up with some points,” said Marauders head coach, Katie Farmer. “For example, she scored around 40 points in our city final. So we’ll have to find ways to compensate for that.”

Holy Cross – the fourth seed for the 5A girls tournament – will square off against the Winston-Knoll Wolverines out of Regina on Thursday.

Licking their wounds from their Saskatoon city championship loss, head coach, Rachel Sherven, said the message to her team was to wipe the slate clean for Moose Jaw.

“We have to completely reset,” Sherven said. “That happened Friday, we have a completely new task. We can hopefully do our best, play our best basketball and have different outcomes this weekend.”

Regina’s Miller Comprehensive and Swift Current Comprehensive High will battle in the final tournament opener in the 5A girls division.

Celebration of Saskatchewan basketball

The HOOPLA experience is one which thousands of athletes across Saskatchewan have earned since the tournament’s inception dating back to the 1940s.

It’s become a tournament which has united schools of all sizes, according to Rutten, with the gold medal finals on Saturday drawing the biggest crowds.

“We’ve been lucky enough to be in the provincial final for the last game on Saturday evening,” Rutten said. “Some of the other teams from smaller towns finish up their games and try to pack the gym for that last game. It’s always a really cool environment seeing high school basketball celebrated all in one place.”

For athletes like Dubray, that electricity in the crowd atmosphere is what has been the biggest driver to qualify for Moose Jaw, along with getting the chance to be crowned the best 4A team in the province.

“It’s always cheering, loud, encouragement. It really gets you going in the games. That’s all you can hear and sometimes you have to drown it out. That’s something that you always look forward to, is how big the crowd is,” Dubray said.

Simpson will be part of that atmosphere for one final run this week in her hometown, just two wins away from wearing provincial gold around her neck.

“I’ve thought about it for sure,” Simpson said.