An islands-wide basketball showdown is spinning up thanks to Phoenix Elementary School, an effort that will bring together Grade 6 and 7 students from all across the district to vie for top honours.
The round-robin tournament will take place Tuesday, April 18 at the Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) gymnasium, according to Phoenix Elementary School principal Dan Sparanese, who added that the competitive structure would likely see a final game between the top two teams at around 3:15 p.m.
Sparanese said that with how the SD64 schools have been reconfigured — and with each elementary school having added a complement of energetic sixth and seventh graders — the schools thought it would be fun to get them all together at one event.
“There was a lot of interest [in basketball] across the district at that age level,” said Sparanese. “So each school entered at least one team, with some entering multiple teams. It’s a bit of a showdown, for sure,” he said.
Some 80 students are expected to participate, with players from Phoenix, Fernwood, Fulford and Salt Spring elementary schools, as well as from Pender Island School. The individual elementary schools are distributing information to their respective parent communities, said Sparanese, and the GISS gym will be split in half to facilitate running two games at a time, so there will be plenty of spectator opportunities over the course of the day.
“I think there’s going to end up being about 18 games,” said Sparanese. “We’re hoping to make it a community event.”