Wesmen Classic sorely missed

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This article was published 29/12/2020 (1723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the past 20 years, David Crook has spent Dec. 28 inside the University of Winnipeg’s Duckworth Centre.

Crook, the U of W’s athletic director, continued that trend on Monday, but of course, it wasn’t the scene he’s accustomed to seeing at this time of year. There wasn’t a buzz in the building, the stands were empty and there was no sound of sneakers squeaking on the hardwood floor. He stood on the court by himself on what was supposed to be the first day of the 54th annual Wesmen Classic — an event that’s on the long list of cancellations owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It felt pretty awful the whole day, to be honest. Even the 27th, as that’s usually the prep day,” Crook told the Free Press on Tuesday.

“The whole COVID thing, certainly code red, has felt like Groundhog Day. It’s sort of the same thing every day. But yesterday carried some special frustration and a feeling of sadness that the event wasn’t on. It was hard.”

This year’s Classic was going to return to its roots as it was to feature men’s basketball for the first time since 2016. The tournament was a men’s basketball event for its first 50 years until the school decided in 2017 to rotate between men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball. The 2019 event highlighted women’s volleyball for the first time and the Wesmen defeated their crosstown rivals, the Manitoba Bisons, in the championship game.

Crook has been involved with the eight-team tournament for the past decade as an administrator but before that, he coached at the holiday hoops spectacle for 24 years. He coached the Lethbridge Pronghorns, who he brought to his hometown tournament nine times, before spending 2001-2010 on the sidelines for the Wesmen men’s team. Crook posted a picture of himself at an empty Duckworth Centre on Twitter Monday.

“I got some great messages from people all across the country. Jay Triano (Charlotte Hornets) and Scott Morrison (Boston Celtics), two (Canadian) NBA assistant coaches, replied to me yesterday. It was cool to get all those messages and see that tournament had impacted so many people over the years as well, which is also very nice,” Crook said.

“It’s special and just brings people in. I know that the volleyball people who’ve had the opportunity in the last couple of years also feel the same way as well.”

Originally called the Golden Boy Tournament, the event was founded in 1967 at Riddell Hall by former Wesmen bench boss Vic Pruden. It would later move to the Winnipeg Arena and then the Winnipeg Convention Centre until the Duckworth Centre opened its doors in 1985. Over the years, high school and club teams were added to the mix.

Wesmen legend Ken Opalko is also missing the action this year. Opalko starred for the downtown Winnipeg school from 1976-81 and finished as the program’s all-time leading scorer. Between his playing career, coaching days at MBCI, and supporting his son Matt, who played for the Wesmen from 2003-08, Opalko estimates he’s been to the Classic around 45 times. Opalko said he and his wife Linda talked on Monday about how bizarre it feels to not have their post-Christmas outing this year.

“It’s just something we do every year. One of the things that I really miss about that is a lot of people come back for Christmas from all over the country to be with family and a whole bunch of those people would come to the Wesmen Classic. It’s major reunion time,” said Opalko, who also played on the Canadian national team.

“Sometimes I’d say to Linda ‘I’m gonna go watch the games this afternoon.’ She’d say ‘OK, I’ll go tonight.’ She didn’t want to be there the whole day, of course, I did. I’d come home, have supper then I’d go with her later on. She’d say to me ‘So, what were the scores this afternoon?’ And sometimes I hardly knew what the score was because I’d be reconnecting with guys I played with 35-40 years ago. It was awesome. That’s part of the legacy that the Wesmen Classic has left.”

The atmosphere at local university sports events in recent years has been nowhere near what it used to be as you’ll no longer see thousands in attendance to see the Wesmen and Bisons battle it out. But for Crook, that doesn’t soften the blow of going through the holiday season without the Classic, and while he already has a long list of memories, he’s looking forward to creating some new ones next year at this time. Men’s basketball will not lose its spot in the rotation as it will be featured in 2021.

“It will never be the same. I mean, amateur sports in the ’90s when there weren’t so many options, it was such a huge event,” Crook said.

“We’ll never capture that again, but we can still capture some great emotion and feelings for all the teams now. I think that’s really positive for the university and for the program.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31