22 basketball teams from across the province are in Lacombe for the next 3 days, competing in 1A boys and girls provincials.

Central Alberta Christian School is the proud host of the tourney, opening ceremonies were held this morning (Mar 15th) and action is underway.

CACHS Development Officer Cindy Ekkel says they are fortunate to have support from some other schools in the community to host the tournament.

“It’s really great for our school to host this; it’s rare that a 1A school can have a tournament of this size so we’re thankful for the help from Lacombe Christian School and Lacombe Composite High School to be able to work together, share our gyms and just get a whole bunch of people into our community”.

Head Coach of the boys CACHS Knights Veronica DenOudsten says the best in Alberta at this level are participating.

“Any team that’s here needs to win at their zone, so there are 8 zones in Alberta, and they need to be the zone champion, so some zones have quite a few teams there that they have to go through a process through league, through a zone championship, and they have to win in order to be invited to come to this tournament”.

Hannah van Iperen, co-captain of the CACHS Knights girls team says they know competition will be fierce.

“It’s pretty competitive, like during league it’s not as much for our area, for our zone, but going to zones was pretty competitive, and provincials we know there’s a lot of top teams out there and the top 5 teams or top 10 teams are all pretty close together so it will be super tough competition going into quarter finals or wherever we are in”.

Van Iperen says it’s exciting to host and adds there are some nerves playing in front of the hometown crowd.  

“It’s a little stressful being the host team you want to live up to what people think of you, you know, but I think just our mindset is king of just to enjoy where we are at, just be in the moment and just have fun with it wherever we are placed”.

You can follow all the results and stay up to date on the tournament here.

(photo from the opening ceremonies this morning at CACHS)