By Scott Roblin

Rousing success for first Mohawks 3-on-3 basketball tournament

Jun 17, 2017 | 8:56 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Although the high school basketball season has come to a close, action continued over the weekend at Medicine Hat High School with both students and adults hitting the court.

The first ever Mohawks 3-on-3 basketball tournament was held on Friday and Saturday, with close to 30 teams signing up for the inaugural event.

Five divisions were established for the weekend tourney, including the junior boys and junior girls divisions, senior boys and senior girls divisions, and a mens division as well.

Organizer Derek Groves said a new, two-court gymnasium is helping to attract more students to high school basketball programs.

“Here at Hat High we’ve got a fantastic facility, that we’re trying to build towards something where we can have a hotbed of basketball in southern Alberta,” said Groves. “It’s just awesome to see little kids and the old guys playing. We’ve got a huge age range between people that are playing, it’s just good to see.”

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Teams utilized the space in the new gymnasium at the school, with two to three games often being played on the 3-on-3 half courts.

Groves said it’s a state of the art facility, and he’s glad to see it already used by so many people.

“There’s not too many schools in Alberta or Canada that have a gymnasium that has two full basketball courts end-to-end,” he said. “It’s just awesome for our community and for Hat High as well.”

Volunteers also dotted the floor and at both ends of the gym, helping to keep score and properly officiate the mini-games over the weekend.

According to Groves, this tournament isn’t a walk in the park to win.

“The level of competition is very high, games are competitive,” he said. “There hasn’t been too many blowouts, lots of close games, lots of heated battles. The last game that just happened was between the top two men’s teams that are in the tournament right now, and it was hotly contested that’s for sure.”

A ladies division was planned this year but was scrapped due to low registration, though Groves added he hopes to bring the ladies division back next year.