High School Basketball: Delayed Start of Season Leads to Cancellation of 100-Team Big Ticket Tournament

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The delay of the high school basketball campaign has led to the cancellation of the Big Ticket, a season-opening tournament that organizer Anthony Beyrouti says will feature more than 100 boys and girls teams in six divisions playing in 20 Greater Vancouver host schools.

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BC School Sports (BCSS) announced Wednesday night that it was delaying the start of the winter sports season, which includes basketball. from next Monday to next Wednesday, and that they would re-evaluate that opening day on Monday.

The BCSS made the decision on the grounds that “the province is still dealing with the effects of the severe weather event and is currently in a state of emergency,” according to a written statement.

Beyrouti, a longtime women’s basketball coach at North Vancouver’s Argyle High School, said losing the two more days uncertainty about the start of the season made the Big Ticket and its 8th grade boys and girls junior, as well as senior boys and girls divisions. impossible to execute. The tournament had planned to award 40 scholarships worth $ 1,000 each by the end of the tournament, but that too is on hold now.

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Beyrouti said he received positive feedback from playing the tournament from team coaches in Abbotsford, where weather issues were hit the hardest. Beyrouti said she believes sports help with mental health. Basketball, along with all high school sports, was in practice mode last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were looking to provide an exceptional experience for the kids and reinvigorate their love of high school basketball,” he said.

BCSS also announced Wednesday that it would delay the provincial volleyball championship of four girls and three boys per week, now assigning them to Dec. 8 and 11. Travel considerations were again the main reason and the delay is expected to provide the best opportunity to run the tournament in the “traditional format” or as provincial finals. BCSS could go for the regional playoffs, as they have done in soccer and men’s soccer, if that’s more feasible.

BCSS is scheduled to make a decision on volleyball on Monday.

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