Organizers of a tournament that will be held in Port Alberni during the May long weekend have quickly discovered there is quite a thirst for basketball.
The second annual Tseshaht Lightning Open Tournament will be staged May 16-19 at various facilities in Port Alberni.
A total of 67 teams, competing in six divisions, will participate in the event. That’s a substantial increase from the 46 squads that competed in the inaugural tourney a year ago.
Tournament organizer Ed Ross said the number of teams taking part this year could have been much higher as about 30 teams were turned away.
“We didn’t know if we could handle that volume until we talked to our scheduler,” Ross said. “Our scheduler told us that we could probably easily handle 80 teams. So, we’ll know that for next year.”
The 2025 tournament will feature both girls’ and boys’ teams at the Under 13 and Under 17 levels. And there will also be pair of adult categories – senior women’s and senior men’s.
“There’s a lot of Nuu-chah-nulth teams,” Ross said. “But it’s an open inclusive tournament.”
Ross, who will be coaching the Tseshaht Lightning girls’ Under 13 squad at the tourney, said the concept of the event started innocently enough.
His daughters were playing some hoops with some non-Indigenous friends and they were talking about the excitement of competing in the Junior All Native Basketball Tournament.
Ross said one of the non-Indigenous girls asked his daughters if she could play on their club.
“My daughters said you can’t because you’re not Indigenous,” Ross said. “You could see in her eyes that that hurt her. From there we thought let’s host an inclusive tournament. Why not host something where we could all come together and do something that we love and be together.”
Ross estimates about 90 per cent of the teams competing at this year’s Tseshaht tourney are Indigenous.
The majority of the players are from British Columbia. But Ross said some teams will have players coming from the Northwest Territories and even from San Jose, Calif.
Tseshaht will be represented by five squads. There will be a pair of entrants in the boys’ Under 13 division and one girls’ Under 13 team.
Tseshaht is also entering clubs in both the women’s and men’s categories.
“I expect them to compete well if they train hard and they’re ready,” Ross said of the Tseshaht representatives.
He also anticipates Bella Bella, Prince Rupert and Similkameen Country to send strong clubs that will challenge for titles.
Ross will be joined by his eldest daughter, Memphis Dick-Ross, who will serve as an assistant coach for the Tseshaht Lightning U-13 girls team. Memphis Dick-Ross will be playing for a women’s team in the event.
Ross’ team will also include his three other daughters – Mia, Innisa and Parris - who will be playing.
Besides staging a tournament that was born out of a desire to be inclusive, Ross said organizers want to be great hosts.
“We’re also investing everything back into the tournament, meaning from all the entry fees. We didn’t want to have prize money because we didn't want people to start completely stacking teams and just coming up to annihilate people,” he said. “We invested all of the entry fees back into stuff like silver-carved rings, silver-carved pendants for the prestigious awards. All-star (awards) are also being created by local artists.”
Organizers have ordered championship sweaters and keepsake trophies for the winners.
The Alberni Athletic Hall will serve as the tournament’s main gym and will host all of the semi-finals and finals.
Matches will also be held at Alberni District Secondary School, E.J. Dunn Elementary School, Haahuupayak Elementary School and Maht Mahs Gym.
Ross is pleased to see basketball playing a vital part in Nuu-chah-nulth life.
“Honestly, I really think that tournaments and sports are the closest things that we have to potlatches, where we're just coming together to do something that we love, playing as a team, helping each other achieve something and just connecting and just sitting with each other,” he said. “I think that's why it's so well attended and so it's more than just basketball.”
